Post by Antonio on May 19, 2024 12:10:54 GMT 12
Link: newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/17/dear-minister-military-families-need-your-help/
As the NZ Defence Force battles with recruitment and retention problems due to poor pay and conditions, the wife of a personnel member writes to the Government asking a simple question: ‘How are we meant to survive?
Erin Speedy, the wife of an NZDF personnel member, says current pay rates are insufficient to support a family, while they lack access to childcare and live in damp, mouldy housing. Photo: Supplied
I have written to you, to attempt to give you an insight into the incredible hardship of being an NZDF family. Whilst I cannot speak on behalf of serving personnel, I can speak from my own perspective, and others whose role it is to support their serving partners.
As I attempt to comfort my toddler screaming for his Daddy, I can’t help but shed a tear too.
Rather than tears of sadness for a Dad who’s absent from his family life while serving the New Zealand Defence Force, they are tears of anger, tears of frustration, tears falling out of complete and utter bitterness for his service.
While our partners are out serving the country, training to provide disaster responses and relief and for foreign wars, we are left to pick up the pieces at home.
So I ask you Minister, how are we meant to survive?
Because the current salaries offered by the NZDF are inadequate to support a family. It’s almost impossible to support a family of four on a Corporal’s wage of less than $80,000 per year after a decade of service, a wage that’s 15 percent lower than the civilian market.
I ask you Minister, where is your understanding?
You increase NZDF wages with one hand, only to take with the other hand by increasing rents 40 percent, nullifying any positive impacts and leaving us worse off in a cost of living crisis.
While you receive a pay rise, we are still left to struggle to afford the basic necessities, constantly juggling bills and expenses, living paycheck to paycheck with little to no room for savings or unexpected emergencies.
I ask you Minister, where do you live?
We live in damp, cold, mouldy houses where toxic black mould grows freely; where we and our children suffer the health effects of eczema, asthma, upper respiratory infections and problems; where cowboy contractors lay carpet so badly that a small trip leaves our children with injuries; where mushrooms grow in the bathroom, where our friends fall through our rotted floors, where our children are playing in houses with asbestos and lead paint.
For even though the NZDF estate needs $400 million, because most of the houses are “in poor condition and at the end of useful life” and “there is minimal, or no, remaining useful life in the majority of the defence estate”, we as taxpayers and NZDF families already living in substandard conditions are now facing further cuts to maintenance.
Left to pick up the pieces
I ask you Minister, where is your support?
We as partners are left at home to pick up the pieces, to maintain some semblance of normalcy in our lives, to support our children and work full time because it’s impossible to survive as a single income family on your wages.
But whilst we need to work, we cannot, because even though you say you are committed to families, there are little to no adequate childcare services.
I ask you Minister, do you know that there are only five positions for under-two-year-olds at the local kindergarten, the only appropriate child care within more than an hour’s drive? And that there are 15 under-twos on that same waitlist, because you’ve also taken away privileges for in-home childcare in your military camps? Where’s the financial help for those 15 families who now cannot work because you’ve failed to provide a basic need for families to thrive in your military camps? Do you know what it feels like to have your whole life upheaved, to be forced to restart again and again?
We move from posting to posting, community to community, to areas where the civilian job opportunities are next to none, where the childcare is insufficient, where we are isolated and remote. We live the life of a solo parent holding it down at home while our partners are gone for days, weeks and months on end, where we’ve given up our careers and our sense of purpose, where our mental health suffers as the anxiety consumes us, left alone at home and not as a “family unit”.
As your Government cuts costs, you say you don’t want the Defence Force doing anything that isn’t core business such as “exploring personal wellbeing”, even as families are falling apart and separating, crumbling under the immense and complex pressures that come with serving their country.
I ask you Minister, have you visited one of your military camps to speak to those on the ground and really, truly hear and understand us? You’ve already lost 27 percent of skilled staff in the last two years with an attrition rate of 15 percent. How many more skilled staff are you prepared to lose?
Our partners return home exhausted and stressed, burnt out, having given their all without adequate recognition or support. The toll it takes on our whole family unit means we “as civilians” feel undervalued and overlooked, struggling to maintain a sense of purpose and pride in their service to our country because we are left suffering and facing the consequences.
The readiness and effectiveness of the NZDF is already compromised by these systemic issues, with morale non-existent and understaffed, underprepared, and underappreciated personnel.
I ask you Minister, what does it mean to you to have the independent Remuneration Authority decide how much your service is worth? You and your colleagues have them to make independent decisions to support you after six years of no pay rises, but your serving personnel don’t have anyone to advocate on their behalf, with no union and seemingly no one fighting for them in the ranks. While nurses and doctors and teachers and police can take to the streets in protest, striking and fighting for their worth as their union representatives negotiate around the table, please don’t forget that your military personnel are governed by separate regulations than civilian labour laws, meaning they have no choices or rights.
You are their voice, while they are forbidden to protest, strike or engage in political activities, while they’re forced to maintain discipline and cohesion, upholding the apolitical nature of the armed forces or face the consequences because ‘the military needs to remain focused on its mission’.
While the military life was one we chose, it’s becoming an impossible choice to stay.
I ask you Minister, do you know what it’s like to truly serve your country when all it entails is punishment?
Do you truly understand the sacrifices we make as families?
Whilst I don’t doubt your job is hard and stressful too, that you face pressure and cop flak from all corners of the country, your $296,000 annual salary makes it worth it, doesn’t it?
It makes it worth it for you to serve your communities and your people in Parliament. It makes it worth it for your family to make sacrifices for you, able to live extremely comfortably on one wage and still be able to afford those small luxuries too.
But moreover Minister, I ask myself why are we still here, suffering, when there is no hope on the horizon?
We are living paycheck to paycheck, forced to make impossible decisions, having to say goodbye to our partners as they embark on deployments, disaster responses and relief to foreign countries – sometimes questioning when or if we will see them again.
They’re gone every other week on training and exercises, exposed to the elements for days, weeks and months, while you sit in your office.
We have to comfort our children as their bodies tremble to see their mummies and daddies, as the loneliness and anxiety in their absence overwhelms and consumes us. Even when they are home, their staffing on the ground is stretched so goddamn thin we still never see them, because the nature of the military entails a 24/7 work ethic. Your own research suggests that one veteran commits the unthinkable every two months – but other support charities suggest it’s many, many more.
While the military life was one we chose, it’s becoming an impossible choice to stay.
So Minister, while you accept your well deserved pay rise, I ask you to consider those who are also serving their country with more mana and sacrifice and being paid a mere 25 percent of the wages of those who have been elected to Government to represent their communities.
Yours sincerely,
Erin Speedy – a struggling “military wife”.
Editor’s note: Erin sent this letter before last week’s deadly fire in a housing block at Burnham Military Camp, and before the Government announced $163 million of funding for NZDF remuneration as part of the upcoming Budget. She tells Newsroom the money is appreciated, but “feels like a whisper in the silence – fleeting and lacks a lasting impact that will truly make a difference”.
As the NZ Defence Force battles with recruitment and retention problems due to poor pay and conditions, the wife of a personnel member writes to the Government asking a simple question: ‘How are we meant to survive?
Erin Speedy, the wife of an NZDF personnel member, says current pay rates are insufficient to support a family, while they lack access to childcare and live in damp, mouldy housing. Photo: Supplied
I have written to you, to attempt to give you an insight into the incredible hardship of being an NZDF family. Whilst I cannot speak on behalf of serving personnel, I can speak from my own perspective, and others whose role it is to support their serving partners.
As I attempt to comfort my toddler screaming for his Daddy, I can’t help but shed a tear too.
Rather than tears of sadness for a Dad who’s absent from his family life while serving the New Zealand Defence Force, they are tears of anger, tears of frustration, tears falling out of complete and utter bitterness for his service.
While our partners are out serving the country, training to provide disaster responses and relief and for foreign wars, we are left to pick up the pieces at home.
So I ask you Minister, how are we meant to survive?
Because the current salaries offered by the NZDF are inadequate to support a family. It’s almost impossible to support a family of four on a Corporal’s wage of less than $80,000 per year after a decade of service, a wage that’s 15 percent lower than the civilian market.
I ask you Minister, where is your understanding?
You increase NZDF wages with one hand, only to take with the other hand by increasing rents 40 percent, nullifying any positive impacts and leaving us worse off in a cost of living crisis.
While you receive a pay rise, we are still left to struggle to afford the basic necessities, constantly juggling bills and expenses, living paycheck to paycheck with little to no room for savings or unexpected emergencies.
I ask you Minister, where do you live?
We live in damp, cold, mouldy houses where toxic black mould grows freely; where we and our children suffer the health effects of eczema, asthma, upper respiratory infections and problems; where cowboy contractors lay carpet so badly that a small trip leaves our children with injuries; where mushrooms grow in the bathroom, where our friends fall through our rotted floors, where our children are playing in houses with asbestos and lead paint.
For even though the NZDF estate needs $400 million, because most of the houses are “in poor condition and at the end of useful life” and “there is minimal, or no, remaining useful life in the majority of the defence estate”, we as taxpayers and NZDF families already living in substandard conditions are now facing further cuts to maintenance.
Left to pick up the pieces
I ask you Minister, where is your support?
We as partners are left at home to pick up the pieces, to maintain some semblance of normalcy in our lives, to support our children and work full time because it’s impossible to survive as a single income family on your wages.
But whilst we need to work, we cannot, because even though you say you are committed to families, there are little to no adequate childcare services.
I ask you Minister, do you know that there are only five positions for under-two-year-olds at the local kindergarten, the only appropriate child care within more than an hour’s drive? And that there are 15 under-twos on that same waitlist, because you’ve also taken away privileges for in-home childcare in your military camps? Where’s the financial help for those 15 families who now cannot work because you’ve failed to provide a basic need for families to thrive in your military camps? Do you know what it feels like to have your whole life upheaved, to be forced to restart again and again?
We move from posting to posting, community to community, to areas where the civilian job opportunities are next to none, where the childcare is insufficient, where we are isolated and remote. We live the life of a solo parent holding it down at home while our partners are gone for days, weeks and months on end, where we’ve given up our careers and our sense of purpose, where our mental health suffers as the anxiety consumes us, left alone at home and not as a “family unit”.
As your Government cuts costs, you say you don’t want the Defence Force doing anything that isn’t core business such as “exploring personal wellbeing”, even as families are falling apart and separating, crumbling under the immense and complex pressures that come with serving their country.
I ask you Minister, have you visited one of your military camps to speak to those on the ground and really, truly hear and understand us? You’ve already lost 27 percent of skilled staff in the last two years with an attrition rate of 15 percent. How many more skilled staff are you prepared to lose?
Our partners return home exhausted and stressed, burnt out, having given their all without adequate recognition or support. The toll it takes on our whole family unit means we “as civilians” feel undervalued and overlooked, struggling to maintain a sense of purpose and pride in their service to our country because we are left suffering and facing the consequences.
The readiness and effectiveness of the NZDF is already compromised by these systemic issues, with morale non-existent and understaffed, underprepared, and underappreciated personnel.
I ask you Minister, what does it mean to you to have the independent Remuneration Authority decide how much your service is worth? You and your colleagues have them to make independent decisions to support you after six years of no pay rises, but your serving personnel don’t have anyone to advocate on their behalf, with no union and seemingly no one fighting for them in the ranks. While nurses and doctors and teachers and police can take to the streets in protest, striking and fighting for their worth as their union representatives negotiate around the table, please don’t forget that your military personnel are governed by separate regulations than civilian labour laws, meaning they have no choices or rights.
You are their voice, while they are forbidden to protest, strike or engage in political activities, while they’re forced to maintain discipline and cohesion, upholding the apolitical nature of the armed forces or face the consequences because ‘the military needs to remain focused on its mission’.
While the military life was one we chose, it’s becoming an impossible choice to stay.
I ask you Minister, do you know what it’s like to truly serve your country when all it entails is punishment?
Do you truly understand the sacrifices we make as families?
Whilst I don’t doubt your job is hard and stressful too, that you face pressure and cop flak from all corners of the country, your $296,000 annual salary makes it worth it, doesn’t it?
It makes it worth it for you to serve your communities and your people in Parliament. It makes it worth it for your family to make sacrifices for you, able to live extremely comfortably on one wage and still be able to afford those small luxuries too.
But moreover Minister, I ask myself why are we still here, suffering, when there is no hope on the horizon?
We are living paycheck to paycheck, forced to make impossible decisions, having to say goodbye to our partners as they embark on deployments, disaster responses and relief to foreign countries – sometimes questioning when or if we will see them again.
They’re gone every other week on training and exercises, exposed to the elements for days, weeks and months, while you sit in your office.
We have to comfort our children as their bodies tremble to see their mummies and daddies, as the loneliness and anxiety in their absence overwhelms and consumes us. Even when they are home, their staffing on the ground is stretched so goddamn thin we still never see them, because the nature of the military entails a 24/7 work ethic. Your own research suggests that one veteran commits the unthinkable every two months – but other support charities suggest it’s many, many more.
While the military life was one we chose, it’s becoming an impossible choice to stay.
So Minister, while you accept your well deserved pay rise, I ask you to consider those who are also serving their country with more mana and sacrifice and being paid a mere 25 percent of the wages of those who have been elected to Government to represent their communities.
Yours sincerely,
Erin Speedy – a struggling “military wife”.
Editor’s note: Erin sent this letter before last week’s deadly fire in a housing block at Burnham Military Camp, and before the Government announced $163 million of funding for NZDF remuneration as part of the upcoming Budget. She tells Newsroom the money is appreciated, but “feels like a whisper in the silence – fleeting and lacks a lasting impact that will truly make a difference”.
