McKenzie detailed many of his findings in a recent cover story for North & South magazine, which canvased the myriad reasons that Defence Force staffers are leaving in droves.
“We’re seeing people who can’t afford to stay in the organisation and others who are getting offered tens of thousands of dollars to leave,” McKenzie says.
“What that means for the Defence Force is profound. It means that if it was asked to do a long-term peace-keeping mission in the Pacific, for example, it probably wouldn’t be able to do that, according to the people I spoke to. That’s a really fundamental expectation that we have of our Defence Force.”
Even local obligations could prove a challenge if these staffing issues aren’t addressed appropriately.
“If another earthquake were to hit or if more cyclones were to strike or if we saw increased flooding of the sort that we saw earlier this year, the Defence Force would really find it tough to go into those regions and to help the people who would otherwise rely on that.
“Effectively, we’re seeing an organisation that, for all that our country relies on it for, is struggling to walk and chew gum.”
So why is the Defence Force struggling so much right now? What impact is the cost of living crisis having on staff? Are there any efforts from Government to rectify this problem? And is it still even important for New Zealand to have a military given how small we are?
Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to hear McKenzie elaborate on all these issues and more.
