Stephen Hoadley: New Zealand Defence Force under stress but far from ‘dire straits’

The HMNZS Taupo ran fishery patrols with the Samoan Maritime Police in Samoa in June 2023. Photo / New Zealand Defence Force.

OPINION

Is the New Zealand Defence Force in “dire straits”? So asserted the front page headlines of the NZ Herald (January 3). Granted, this is an overdue wake-up call. But it needs historical context and situational qualification.

First, the challenge of retaining skilled personnel is as old as the NZDF itself, indeed as old as every defence force in the democratic neo-liberal world. In NZ, one can identify a proximate cause in the advent of Rogernomics in the 1980s. Labour’s neo-liberal policies set in motion an acceleration of private sector pay increases that outpaced those in the public sector. NZDF specialists are now paid up to 15 per cent less than civilian counterparts. Little wonder they migrate to the private sector, or to the Australian Defence Force.

Second, the rapid acquisition of fleets of new ships, army vehicles, and helicopters by Helen Clark’s Government in the 2000s heightened demands for new skills to operate the more sophisticated platforms. As those platforms aged, they required more maintenance, a further demand on military specialists, only partially relieved by expensive outsourcing.

Third, the rapprochement with the United States during the Obama and Key governments multiplied opportunities for mil-mil cooperation. And at the same time the rise of China increased demand for a counterbalancing Western military presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Deployment to Iraq during the ISIS crisis in 2017 placed further strains on the troops and their supply chain. This high tempo of overseas deployments disrupted family life.

Fourth, Covid-19 obliged the Ardern Government to curtail critical training and exercises, divert personnel to quarantine duties and subsidise businesses and individuals. The result was a lag in skills upgrading followed by a surge in inflation, further deepening the gap between military pay and civilian costs of living.

Fifth, although successive chiefs of defence force warned successive ministers of defence of the growing mismatch between demands and capabilities, those ministers of defence despite good intentions were unable to prevail against competing ministers’ demands for funds. The current minister, Judith Collins, faces 19 other ministers around the Cabinet table and 8 ministers outside Cabinet. Minister of Finance Nicola Willis is determined to cut, not increase, funding of public services. And Collins will be cross-pressured as she advocates for funding for her other portfolios as Attorney-General, minister for the two intelligence services SIS and GCSB, and minister for Science and for Space.

So, from the 1980s to the present the problem of retention of specialist military skills has grown. The NZDF has not collapsed in crisis, but rather continued to perform the tasks assigned it. What was not included in the otherwise accurate Herald report was an assessment of how resourcefully the NZDF has coped. It might have noted that although three ships are tied up for want of specialist crew, the other six ships of the Navy have been actively deploying throughout the Pacific and beyond. HMNZS Canterbury has recently returned from an extended deployment and its crew are enjoying a well-earned leave with their families before embarking on a new round of deployments. HMNZS Aotearoa is said to be the Australian Navy’s tanker of choice, and is keeping busy. The Air Force and Army have flown and deployed to numerous peacekeeping and international exercise assignments in the past year. The Air Force did succeed in carrying Prime Minister Luxon safely to and from his meeting with his Australian counterpart in December.

What if a natural disaster or international crisis demanded full mobilisation? Several workarounds are available.

· Physical requirements for administrative roles can be relaxed, or roles opened to civilians, to free up uniformed specialists for frontline duties.

· Some critical skill roles can be filled by secondments. Australia, Britain, Canada and the US, New Zealand’s Five Eyes partners, have been helpful in the past and will be in future, for it is in their interest NZ works effectively alongside them for common security aims.

· Partner defence forces, and private firms, can fill gaps in the supply chain or help transport and support NZ troops abroad.

· Temporary rearrangement or substitutions of defence assets is possible, for example, HMNZS Manawanui can stand in for HMNZS Canterbury or the patrol vessels to respond to natural disasters. The frigates Te Mana and Te Kaha, recently refitted and upgraded, can be multi-tasked.

· The Governor-General, using the emergency provisions of the Defence Act, can call retired personnel back for temporary duty, thus filling critical roles to enable the ships to sail, the aircraft to fly and the soldiers to deploy to accomplish their missions.

Do New Zealand’s reputation and influence suffer because of defence shortfalls? I don’t believe so. New Zealand’s status rests on skilful diplomacy, intelligence sharing, economic interdependence, good governance, and a variety of other qualities, of which defence is just one tool in the Government’s toolbox. And partner governments are facing similar problems of migration of military specialists to the better-paying private sector, so are tolerant of New Zealand’s retention woes.

In short, the NZDF is facing serious problems of skilled personnel attrition, but is managing them. A pay rise would solve many of the problems, but in the current parsimonious fiscal climate this solution is unlikely to materialise. The NZDF will continue to perform its varied and demanding roles credibly, albeit needing to rely increasingly on role adjustments, work-arounds, multi-tasking, damage control, and assistance from partners. Their occasional short-falls, mostly beyond their control, should not obscure their on-going service to the nation.

Stephen Hoadley was an Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Auckland (now retired) and Honorary Captain, Royal New Zealand Navy.