Security force eligible for pensions

By Audrey Young

New Zealanders serving in the East Timor security force will be eligible for war pensions.

The cabinet would approve the move on Monday, War Pensions Minister Don McKinnon told Parliament yesterday.

"This will be the first time any Government has done this before the event took place."

The announcement, during a special debate, was widely applauded.

Labour MP and Vietnam War veteran Geoff Braybrooke was particularly pleased.

"I know only too well all the good wishes that are given to you when you go and how quickly memories fade when you come home.

"I waited 30 years to take part in a welcome home parade for Vietnam veterans."

Another former soldier, NZ First list MP Ron Mark, was congratulated from MPs across the House for a speech pleading for better wages for soldiers. He apologising if it sounded "a little political."

He asked the House to consider how little soldiers going into East Timor were paid compared with police officers coming out.

The average pay of a private was $23,986 and a police graduate earned $40,000, Mr Mark said.

He also pleaded that East Timor veterans with medical problems "not be treated the same way as servicemen in the past have been."

"We should remember in their time of need, how desperately we needed them in ours."

Mr Mark attacked those who have called for the reduction or disbandment of New Zealand's defence forces - "the same people who have championed the cause of freedom and democracy and human rights ad nauseum."

"It's days like this I ask them to quietly sit down and ask themselves the question: How do you guarantee democracy, how to guarantee the maintenance of basic human rights if you don't have a strong, credible defence force with which to enforce it?"

He said it was a "nice idea" to spend money on hospitals, schools and social welfare.

"But we have a responsibility to make sure our servicemen and women are properly armed, properly paid and properly equipped."