Manawanui strikes reef: That sinking feeling when critics try to blame diversity – Ryan Bridge

"By all accounts the HMNZS Manawanui Commanding Officer Yvonne Gray is a talented, hard-working, capable leader," Ryan Bridge writes. Photo / New Zealand Defence Force

THREE KEY FACTS

• Military experts have called the running aground of HMNZS Manawanui a “huge blow”, saying “We have to take it on the chin”.
• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has promised to do everything it takes to minimise the environmental damage in Samoa.
• Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the vessel is covered by “the equivalent of third-party insurance”.

Ryan Bridge is Newstalk ZB’s Early Edition host.

OPINION

As the HMNZS Manawanui slowly sank off the coast of Samoa, the inevitable onslaught of social commentary began.

Feeds, blogs, group chats and private message boards lit up with three politically charged letters: DEI. For those unfamiliar, they stand for diversity, equity and inclusion.

The gist of the commentary goes like this: Did you hear the captain who sunk that ship was a woman? Typical. I bet she was a DEI hire! Why else would they put a woman in charge of a $100 million Navy asset?

The problem with this reaction is two-fold.

Firstly, Commander Yvonne Gray is not a DEI hire. Far from it. Beginning her Navy career as a warfare officer in the UK back in 1993, Gray worked her way up the ranks and eventually landed on our shores, where she has served as Commanding Officer of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Mine Counter Measures Team and for the past two years as Commander of the HMNZS Manawanui.

She’s highly respected by her colleagues, both publicly and, I’m reliably informed, privately too. By all accounts she’s a talented, hard-working, capable leader.

We don’t yet know exactly why the ship hit the reef, but even if human error did play a part, and the only hint we have so far is that the vessel may have lost power at some point, you can be sure of one thing. The ship didn’t crash because a woman was driving it.

This brings us to the second problem with this DEI issue. It’s the perception it creates.

Specific quotas aimed at boosting the number of so-called “minorities” in certain workforces only undermine the credibility of those who worked hard to get there on merit. People like Yvonne Gray.

The last thing you want when something goes wrong is people looking at you thinking “Is she/they/them/whatever only there because...”

Most successful people I know are neither old nor men and I suspect they’d all loathe the idea of being a “diversity” hire.

When the Navy ship the HMNZS Manawanui began to list on Saturday evening, Commander Yvonne Gray decided to evacuate the ship. Photos / Profile Bats, NZ Defence Force

Personally, one of the reasons (there were several) why I didn’t come out publicly in my job as a broadcaster was for the simple fact I wanted to be known first and foremost as a good political interviewer.

I worked my ass off trying to keep the government accountable, particularly during Covid, and the last thing I wanted when replacing Duncan Garner on Three’s AM was for people to think Warner Bros Discovery had thrown a gay guy in the hot seat because it was trendy.

I wanted people to know and (hopefully) respect me for my work first. Sexuality is only really a small part of who we are. Same goes for gender. They’re really important and interesting parts, but not everything.

We are so much more than who we root or what we’re packing south of the border.

This is a hot-button political issue in the United States in the lead-up to next month’s election. It cropped up after the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Everyone looked at the female Secret Service agent struggling to re-holster her gun and screamed “DEI hire”.

I don’t know the background of that particular agent but the Secret Service has been criticised by some for its target of having at least 30% female agents by 2030.

While our Defence Force has excellent programmes encouraging role models of diverse backgrounds to lead by example and on merit, I understand it has no strict DEI quotas.

And what they’re doing is clearly working. There are more Māori serving at all levels of our armed forces, including leadership roles, than exists in the general population.

Our Army is led by Brigadier Rose King. Our Defence Minister is Judith Collins, who, it must be agreed, no matter your political persuasion, certainly didn’t box-tick her way into Cabinet on a DEI bandwagon. More like boxed her way to the top like Conor McGregor on steroids.

Collins made a point of saying, when announcing Major General Rose King as Army chief, that she got the job on merit. And that’s because she did – and good for her.

There are many who argue quotas and targets are the only way to achieve progressive societal change, which, don’t get me wrong, is definitely needed. But I think we have enough evidence from trailblazers all around us that there is another way. A path forward that doesn’t undermine the very people it seeks to elevate.

God help us there’s a next time a Navy vessel runs aground or a company reports a bad result or a Prime Minister leaves us in debt. I hope the first question that’s asked is not to do with gender or sexuality but rather to do with competence.