Govt defends revealing location of NZ troops

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The Government has defended revealing the location of New Zealand troops in the Middle East despite earlier saying to do so would put them in harm's way.

Prime Minister John Key, in Saudi Arabia, told local media organisation Gulf News that Defence Force personnel were currently in Dubai ahead of their deployment at Camp Taji, near Baghdad.

Mr Key defended his disclosure, saying he did not tell New Zealand reporters because he did not consider it newsworthy.

Opposition MPs slammed his comments.

Labour's foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer accused Mr Key of a "frightening lack of judgement".

"At the same time the Prime Minister is telling us that disclosing operational details could be a security risk he is being loose-lipped on the world stage," he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Mr Key and Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee refused to give details about troops' movements, date of deployment or their training programme in Australia.

Mr Brownlee said at the time any details would not be provided "in accordance with our policy on non-identification of personnel and for reasons of operational security".

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark accused Mr Key of breaching NZDF policy in Parliament today, and possibly the Cabinet Manual.

He asked how Mr Key's disclosure of the troops' location could be reconciled with earlier comments warning of the risks of such a disclosure.

National Minister Simon Bridges, speaking on behalf of the Mr Brownlee, said it should not be a surprise that troops heading for Iraq were currently in a stop-off in the Middle East.

He said Government had already announced that the troops would be deployed in Baghdad by mid-May.

"I want to reiterate ... that for reasons of operational security and in order to keep our soldiers as safe as possible we won't be going into detail on specific travel arrangements," Mr Bridges said.

Mr Shearer said it was the "umpteenth time" New Zealanders had found out about details about the deployment from foreign sources.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott revealed earlier this month that around 100 New Zealand soldiers had been training in Australia - information which had not been made public New Zealand ministers.