Tough case of judges' pay

Chief Justice Sian Elias received a 6.5 per cent pay increase and other judges up to 4 per cent in a decision which was buried at Christmas.

But Cabinet is refusing to reinstate gold-plated pensions axed in 1992 - although some replacement schemes have performed disastrously.

Judges' pay rates became a thorn in the executive's side after Elias told an International Bar Association conference in October she was "alarmed about the implications for judicial independence" if judges felt they had to stay onside with the Government or influential law firms to get retirement jobs to eke out their savings.

Her words sparked a public backlash among those who thought judges' salaries - which now range from $215,000 to $348,000 in Elias' case - left room "for any dolt" to save a nest egg.

She went further with an unpublicised suggestion to an Adelaide judicial conference that much political opposition was due to "indignation" over MPs' "meagre retirement schemes".

The Remuneration Authority which gazetted the judges' pay increase on December 23, said it cannot match senior lawyers' salaries. But neither should judges' salaries be set at a level which makes accepting a judicial appointment an "economically irrational act".

"The authority has evidence on numerous occasions of the income sacrifice which many appointees make in order to serve their country in this fashion. New Zealand should be grateful that men and women of calibre continue to accept appointments as judges."