Fire crews battle to contain a large fire in Canterbury's West Melton overnight and Syria celebrates the end of the Assad family's 50-year regime. Video / NZ Herald
A drive to change RSAs by the head office has led to rebellion.
RSA national chair Martyn Dunne says change is essential to avoid ‘slow death’.
The rebel group says alternative ideas are not welcome.
Infighting at the RSA has reached fever-pitch with up to 40 clubs threatening to quit the 108-year-old veteran support organisation amid secret recordings and claims of misinformation.
The rebels make up about a quarter of Returned and Services Association clubs, although they include well-attended clubs likely to make up amuch higher percentage of a membership believed to have fallen from 100,000 to around 66,000 in the past decade.
An alternative constitution has been drafted and lawyers hired by some clubs to see whether they can continue to call themselves an “RSA” if no longer connected through the Royal NZ Returned and Services Association, the national body.
RNZRSA chairman Martyn Dunne said: “If that’s what they want to do it is very unfortunate but it won’t be the RNZRSA. If you’re not in the RNZRSA then you can’t call yourself an RSA.
Dunne and other leaders at the national office have raised concerns about large hospitality-focused RSAs that contribute only a fraction of their turnover to veterans' support. Those opposing the changes have painted former general Dunne as operating a “command and control” regime – which he denies.
The scrapping followed the launch of the RSA Modernisation Programme, which involved rewriting the institution’s constitution in a way that was seen to shift the power balance away from independence. There were also claims – denied – that it would allow the national office to grab local clubs’ assets.
The Poppy Appeal funds help the RSA support veterans and their families, regardless of whether they are RSA members or not.
The modernisation programme stemmed from concerns RSAs across the country had eroded equity built up over decades to cover running costs for clubs while not focusing on supporting veterans. In contrast, it has been mooted that the RSA run support centres for the estimated 62,000 veterans created since 1990.
The programme has faced strong opposition from clubs in Auckland and Canterbury as well as others in parts of Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki and Wellington.
It has since descended into whispering campaigns, name-calling and secret recordings – of which the Herald has collected a handful – which include private conversations and closed meetings.
‘They’re leaving us'
Graham Gibson, president of the Auckland District RSAs, said there were those among the 25 clubs in the region who had “lost confidence” in the national office and its leadership.
“What we’re looking at doing is putting up an alternative constitution that’s fairer, that’s more transparent. That’s about bringing people with you, that’s not about being ‘command and control’.
“What the problem is when you stand up to head office and say, ‘have you thought about this’, it’s either my way or the highway.
“They are putting us into a position where there are a number of RSAs that want to leave. They have had a gutsful.”
Auckland RSA president Graham Gibson. Photo / Greg Bowker
Gibson said that if a lot of RSAs broke away from the main body it was likely they would congregate, creating a new umbrella group.
Brian Strong, president of Napier RSA, said plans for it to leave the national body were expected to play out next year. “We’re not leaving them – they’re leaving us.”
He said the departure was intended to make sure next year was the last time Napier RSA had to pay a levy to the national office based on its membership numbers.
Strong said comments by Dunne to the Herald last year about hospitality venues and gambling machines was the beginning of the two bodies heading in opposite directions.
In August 2023, Dunne told the Herald the RSA was duty-bound to protect the value inherent in clubrooms and “put it to best use rather than a booze hall or fellowship centre” and “we don’t allow non-serving people who are on committees [to allow that equity to be] easily frittered away”.
It was a comment taken by many opposed to the constitution changes as an attack on hospitality venues and volunteers who had not been in the military rather than – as Dunne has since explained – using financial value built over decades to help veterans.
Strong: “The business of the RNZRSA doesn’t really fit the business of Napier RSA. We’re hospitality and they can’t give us the advice that Clubs NZ can.”
‘Major taxpayer – retired’
Strong also said he had been made to feel his contribution as someone who had not served was less than those who had, when RSAs across the country operated on volunteer support. At one meeting, during which he said retired officers had introduced themselves by rank, he told them he outranked them all as “major taxpayer, retired”.
The club, which turned over up to $5 million a year, provided around $15,000 in support to veterans as they applied but paid out similar amounts monthly to other community groups which reflected how entwined it had become in the community.
Waimate RSA president Jon Bird quit as Canterbury RSA District president after just 10 days, saying the operation of the national body was “an absolute travesty”. He had approached his role at the national forum with a message of independence for local clubs.
Bird said he wanted to dedicate time to places he believed were doing some good. “Getting into a toxic bun fight with a bunch of people who appreciate nothing but their own opinion is not helping.
“You’ve got a group there who are retired senior officers who are trying to drive people to do things they don’t want to do.”
Estimates of up to 40 clubs quitting the national body have been put by the Herald to a range of RSA presidents, including Bird, Gibson, and Strong, to which they agreed the number could reach that high.
Dunne said his term as chairman finished at the end of the year and he would not be standing again. The abuse directed his way during a process he saw as essential to the future of the RSA was a small part of that but not a driving factor, he said.
“This is bigger than one person. They can blame who they like.”
Dunne said the change process had been complicated by “misinformation” driven by “a small group” who were opposed “and we’ve had some difficulty getting on top of the narrative”.
RSA national chairman Martyn Dunne, during his service with NZ Army and now.
There were also personal attacks and a toxic atmosphere for which he said the “small group” was responsible. “It doesn’t help people recording and not saying they’re doing it.”
“The only thing I can see is they don’t want anyone telling them what to do.”
He said there was respect and regard for those who had not served but contributed to RSAs and an awareness that clubs across the country needed different solutions.
“What we would prefer people not to do is to amalgamate with the bowling club [although] in some places that might be all right.”
Dunne said he left the organisation “more focused on the need for change” and having clearly stated that its purpose was to serve the needs of veterans. “They all say they do that but they don’t. A lot of contemporary veterans are in a difficult place.”
Dunne said it was key to ensure the value of clubrooms paid for over decades with cash and hard work did not disappear in an era that saw veterans engaging in different places and in different ways. “At the moment, it’s a slow death.
“We’re not taking anything away from anybody.”
He rejected the claim of running a “command and control” campaign for change or that officers had captured the organisation, saying anyone was welcome to run for the board.
The vote for the adoption of the controversial constitution takes place on February 15.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for 35 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
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