No word on police pay rise

Nurses and teachers are calling for significant pay increases this year, but Police Minister Stuart Nash says no officers have asked him for a pay rise.

But National’s police spokesman Chris Bishop said the comments appeared to be a Government preparing police for a small, or non-existent, pay rise.

Over the past few years, collective agreements have entitled police officers to a 2 per cent pay increase each year. Discussions were due to begin in May.

Nurses, who have already begun a new round of negotiations, and teachers, who are about to begin negotiations, are asking for significant pay increases – the primary teachers union (NZEI) is planning a starting bid of 16 per cent.

The Labour-NZ First coalition agreement promises to ‘‘strive towards’’ adding 1800 new police officers over three years. Nash said delivering on this promise was his ‘‘number one priority’’.

He refused to talk about whether police would also be given salary increases, saying those negotiations were a matter for the police commissioner and his team.

But he did say, no cops had raised the issue with him during his travels to police districts in the past couple of months.

‘‘What they talk to me about is how stressed they are, how family violence is impacting on them, how the mental health system is under-funded, and the pressure on them as officers.’’

Bishop said he found it hard to believe not a single officer had raised the issue of pay. ‘‘It appears Mr Nash is trying to prepare police to expect they won’t be getting much of a pay rise, if any.