charged yesterday.

And Opposition Senate Leader Maxwell Burgess compared the setting of a $125,000 salary for political Attorney General Lois Browne Evans to the long-running wrangle over a new pay deal for Police.

He said since the PLP victory last November "they haven't been able to work out how much a Policeman is worth''.

And he told the Government side: "Tell them how long it will take to get their pay and how long to undo what they said was done wrong.

"This Government has just finished telling us how much somebody should earn.

They could have gone the same way with the Police, but they chose not to.'' And he congratulated officers for "unselfishly'' turning out for the May 24 celebrations. There had been fears of a sick-out in protest at the deadlocked pay talks.

But Government Sen. David Burch said the last pay deal had expired towards the end of 1997 -- and a solution had not been reached by the time the PLP took power in November last year.

Sen. Burch added the new Government had promised "to put this at the top of our agenda and address it -- we did so''.

And he said: "It's dishonest, disrespectful and mischievous -- for 18 months under the former Government, they did nothing.'' But Sen. Burgess insisted that negotiations between Police and Government had taken place throughout the whole period.

Sen. Burch hit back: "This Government has undertaken to sort out this matter.

"I would suggest to the Police force they've probably got a better chance of getting a resolution based on our track record than the former Government's.

"They're better off placing their trust in us.'' Police/Government talks on pay have been deadlocked since the last deal expired in 1997.

Government has offered a basic 2.98 percent increase for officers up to Chief Inspector, plus allowances of between six and ten percent, to be phased in over four years. But the Police Association rejected the deal and backed the Mowbray Report recommendations, which included the same allowances, but backdated to when the last deal expired.

Earlier this month, rebel officers staged a sick-out for three days, which cut the normal dayshift by a quarter.

The pay negotiations have now gone to binding arbitration.