Air Nauru - What's happening?
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Mistywaters
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Is it Menen or Meneng??
ON is the only Govt op that has yet to crash and burn,the previous excellent Health and Education systems manned mainly by underpaid expats are no more.Isn't this the same throughout the Third World??
I enjoyed my many years of service with RON,but even during the 'golden ' years my pay was less than half an FO's.
I know better now and work were I'm paid my worth.Ever asked a teacher or a nurse what the going rate in Dubai is at present??
Boys must have their toys and to hell with the masses.
ON is the only Govt op that has yet to crash and burn,the previous excellent Health and Education systems manned mainly by underpaid expats are no more.Isn't this the same throughout the Third World??
I enjoyed my many years of service with RON,but even during the 'golden ' years my pay was less than half an FO's.
I know better now and work were I'm paid my worth.Ever asked a teacher or a nurse what the going rate in Dubai is at present??
Boys must have their toys and to hell with the masses.
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Over 'ere
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Misty Air....."Menen" is the palace and Meneng is the district it is in. Well..... "to hell with the masses, etc."....there I cannot agree with you. Also, all things being equal, I find it hard to believe pay as an ex Pat was(still is?) THAT bad. Good luck to all but then the operative word is indeed ALL.
and B4 someone out there picks me up on it...by "palace" I mean "pad" or similar. That's what come of beings semi sarcastic which was unecessary.
and B4 someone out there picks me up on it...by "palace" I mean "pad" or similar. That's what come of beings semi sarcastic which was unecessary.
Join Date: Dec 2002
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ER2nd. I understand that expat teachers were paid as little as A$15k to $25k.
Indian teachers were paid $8 to $12k.
Doctors were paid $25 to $35k; with Indian medical staff were paid just a little more than their teaching brothers.
What are the pilots paid - did someone mention A$120 to $150k plus their Australian tax paid?
Plus the teachers were allocated houses in the worst part of the Government settlement (teacher's gully) when pilots were in Meneng Terrace or in the NPC settlement.
What do you think?
Indian teachers were paid $8 to $12k.
Doctors were paid $25 to $35k; with Indian medical staff were paid just a little more than their teaching brothers.
What are the pilots paid - did someone mention A$120 to $150k plus their Australian tax paid?
Plus the teachers were allocated houses in the worst part of the Government settlement (teacher's gully) when pilots were in Meneng Terrace or in the NPC settlement.
What do you think?
Join Date: Jan 2002
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Kwaj mate... I know what I was paid and so 'know by estimation' what others would have been getting...roughly too. I did see an official, standard pay scale memorandum for ON pilots. Sure A$120-150 plus tax paid doesn't sound quite right (did I really read that in this thread?). Tax is indeed a grey area but as long as one never appears to be in Oz I guess one would never have to pay the taxes - if that duty did fall/still falls/maybe falls on the aircrew to deal with. It all depends on the way the contracts were draw up doesn't it. If I (as a foreigner from another island) for example, were employed by NPC as a phosphate digger I know what level of pay scale I'd be on... and I wouldn't be living in Nauruan style luxury... not that there is such a thing by our standards. Somehow (me thinks) this thread has gotten way off course and a bit personal (to others) too. For my part, all I wanted to suggest was/is maybe the days for Nauru running an airline are long since past....and my reasons why. That was all. It is a shame that some seem to have an axe to grind. I for one have no regrets - I'd do it all again tomorrow if I could......
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Hi Misty, glad to hear you're now making a go it, must have got that flying job you'd been after for years
As an expat teacher on A$8K,life was not as easy as it should have been,but hey we all did live in Meneng Tce.
As an expat teacher on A$8K,life was not as easy as it should have been,but hey we all did live in Meneng Tce.
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Your not really trying to tell us that you went to Nauru to teach for 8 Grand a year DP, are you?
How stupid do you think we are!?
How stupid are you? The dole is more than that!
How stupid do you think we are!?
How stupid are you? The dole is more than that!
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Back in the dark days, (late seventies) as a first year F/O I think I was getting about A$17Kp.a. tax free and accommodation in Menen Terrace provided. All salaries on Nauru in those days appeared in the Government Gazette so there were no secrets.
I was surrounded by NZ teachers in Menen Tce. They usually came as a husband and wife team, both working, tax free etc. but they were able to supplement their low salaries then by each buying a duty-free Japanese car, importing it to NZ, also duty-free and selling it at a considerable profit. Can't remember if they were allowed one car per contract or one per year.
The RON Government paid Australian salaries to the airline but NZ salaries to the teachers, not a popular move amongst the teaching fraternity!
I was surrounded by NZ teachers in Menen Tce. They usually came as a husband and wife team, both working, tax free etc. but they were able to supplement their low salaries then by each buying a duty-free Japanese car, importing it to NZ, also duty-free and selling it at a considerable profit. Can't remember if they were allowed one car per contract or one per year.
The RON Government paid Australian salaries to the airline but NZ salaries to the teachers, not a popular move amongst the teaching fraternity!
Join Date: Sep 2000
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In those 'dark years' a teacher with at least 6 years exp was on A$8K pa tax free.The only perk was that air travel was cheap and ON went almost anywhere with its 6 planes.
Am wanting to return to check the place out, maybe sailing there is now the only option
Am wanting to return to check the place out, maybe sailing there is now the only option
Dunno about the so called Dark Years. Certainly not for the pilots for sure. Apart from occasional vicious office politics where sacking the messenger was elevated to an art form, the Seventies and early Eighties were for Air Nauru pilots the best flying you could ask for. Lots of overnights at good destinations from Honolulu to Hong Kong and average of 40 hours a month - not exactly hard work compared to DJ. All the while the airline was losing tens of millions of dollars. With rich phosphate money In those days it was the original bottomless pit of dollars.
While Australian and NZ teachers were immensely popular with the locals, even though expat salaries for teachers were absymally low by any third world standards, (I can well believe 8K) the rot set in quickly with the arrival of teachers with dubious qualifications from the Indian sub-continent who were paid even less by the RON government at the time. So the Aussies and Kiwis were deported back to their homelands en masse - often on 48 hours notice - and the education standards fell alarmingly - from which they never recovered - and for which the country is now reaping what the government sowed.
While Australian and NZ teachers were immensely popular with the locals, even though expat salaries for teachers were absymally low by any third world standards, (I can well believe 8K) the rot set in quickly with the arrival of teachers with dubious qualifications from the Indian sub-continent who were paid even less by the RON government at the time. So the Aussies and Kiwis were deported back to their homelands en masse - often on 48 hours notice - and the education standards fell alarmingly - from which they never recovered - and for which the country is now reaping what the government sowed.
Join Date: Mar 2001
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Sat "Weekend Australian"
Judge exposes US Nauru 'deal'
By Cameron Stewart
August 02, 2003
AN Australian court has blocked an attempt by the US to repossess Nauru's only aircraft, an Air Nauru 737, saying it would contravene promises given by Washington to reward Nauru for cracking down on terrorism and for helping smuggle North Korean defectors to the West.
The summary judgment by the Victorian Supreme Court backs claims made by Nauru that the US gave private pledges of financial assistance to the impoverished island in return for abolishing its offshore banking and passport schemes, which Washington claimed were assisting terrorists.
The court's decision is an embarrassment for the US, which has strongly denied making any such promises to Nauru in return for agreeing to crack down on terrorists.
The legal judgment confirms the revelations by The Weekend Australian in April that a shadowy group of well-connected individuals, some claiming to be US intelligence officers, used a mixture of threats and promises to bring Nauru in from the cold in the war on terror.
This same group also asked Nauru to join an intelligence mission, dubbed Operation Weasel, which was to use Nauru's diplomatic facilities in Beijing to help smuggle senior North Korean scientists and military officers to the West.
Letters, documents and emails, obtained by The Weekend Australian, show this group used promises of US aid as a carrot to get Nauru to follow an identical agenda to that of the US State Department.
But when Nauru took the steps asked of it, the US State Department said that any aid promises given to Nauru by private individuals did not have the authority of the US Government and that no aid would be forthcoming.
Nauru decided to test the issue in court after the US Government's export credit agency Eximbank sought last month to repossess the Air Nauru 737 because of loan-payment defaults.
Nauru claimed that Michael Horowitz, a former adviser to president Ronald Reagan, and Joe Pinder, a senior US congressional staffer, were among those who said they would take steps to protect the island's aircraft from US government creditors.
Judge Bill Gillard ruled: "It is open to infer that these men were acting on high executive authority from the US Government.
"The fact that requests were made, which Nauru responded to, and promises were made in the context of these matters, which were of concern to the US Government, does lead, on the material, to the conclusion that the people involved did have the necessary authority of the Government." He said it would be a "grave injustice" if Nauru were not allowed to defend its claims in a trial.
The US State Department has made no comment on the judgement or on the case, which is likely to go to a full trial in Melbourne later this year.
Confidential affidavits given to the court by five Nauruan politicians detailed how their island was recruited for Operation Weasel.
The Supreme Court decision means that, for now, Nauru can keep flying its Air Nauru 737.
===========================================
Judge exposes US Nauru 'deal'
By Cameron Stewart
August 02, 2003
AN Australian court has blocked an attempt by the US to repossess Nauru's only aircraft, an Air Nauru 737, saying it would contravene promises given by Washington to reward Nauru for cracking down on terrorism and for helping smuggle North Korean defectors to the West.
The summary judgment by the Victorian Supreme Court backs claims made by Nauru that the US gave private pledges of financial assistance to the impoverished island in return for abolishing its offshore banking and passport schemes, which Washington claimed were assisting terrorists.
The court's decision is an embarrassment for the US, which has strongly denied making any such promises to Nauru in return for agreeing to crack down on terrorists.
The legal judgment confirms the revelations by The Weekend Australian in April that a shadowy group of well-connected individuals, some claiming to be US intelligence officers, used a mixture of threats and promises to bring Nauru in from the cold in the war on terror.
This same group also asked Nauru to join an intelligence mission, dubbed Operation Weasel, which was to use Nauru's diplomatic facilities in Beijing to help smuggle senior North Korean scientists and military officers to the West.
Letters, documents and emails, obtained by The Weekend Australian, show this group used promises of US aid as a carrot to get Nauru to follow an identical agenda to that of the US State Department.
But when Nauru took the steps asked of it, the US State Department said that any aid promises given to Nauru by private individuals did not have the authority of the US Government and that no aid would be forthcoming.
Nauru decided to test the issue in court after the US Government's export credit agency Eximbank sought last month to repossess the Air Nauru 737 because of loan-payment defaults.
Nauru claimed that Michael Horowitz, a former adviser to president Ronald Reagan, and Joe Pinder, a senior US congressional staffer, were among those who said they would take steps to protect the island's aircraft from US government creditors.
Judge Bill Gillard ruled: "It is open to infer that these men were acting on high executive authority from the US Government.
"The fact that requests were made, which Nauru responded to, and promises were made in the context of these matters, which were of concern to the US Government, does lead, on the material, to the conclusion that the people involved did have the necessary authority of the Government." He said it would be a "grave injustice" if Nauru were not allowed to defend its claims in a trial.
The US State Department has made no comment on the judgement or on the case, which is likely to go to a full trial in Melbourne later this year.
Confidential affidavits given to the court by five Nauruan politicians detailed how their island was recruited for Operation Weasel.
The Supreme Court decision means that, for now, Nauru can keep flying its Air Nauru 737.
===========================================
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Australia
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hey amos2, ATPL actually........but wasn't a bad run on 737s on a CPL eh.....9 years to be exact.
Nauru is unable to pay its debts....but the US will pay for the plane and that on its own minus leases etc is making a healthy profit..not much, but profit nonetheless....best damn job in the region, I reckon.
Nauru is unable to pay its debts....but the US will pay for the plane and that on its own minus leases etc is making a healthy profit..not much, but profit nonetheless....best damn job in the region, I reckon.
