NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather forecasts

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
    • The Great NZ Road Trip
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
    • Cooking the Books
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • What the Actual
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

NZDF says a critical report was too inaccurate to be released but destroyed evidence proving it

David Fisher
By David Fisher
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
27 Mar, 2017 10:16 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A New Zealand soldier on patrol in North East Bamyian in 2011.

A New Zealand soldier on patrol in North East Bamyian in 2011.

Evidence relied on by the NZ Defence Force to shelve a highly critical report of our decade-long deployment to Afghanistan was destroyed, it has said.

This means there are no documents left in existence to support a senior military commander's decision to refuse to accept a report which raised serious questions about the way the Defence Force ran our longest, large-scale military mission.

The Herald revealed yesterday that an expert team of evaluators from the "J8" department in Joint Forces Headquarters carried out a "lessons learned" inquiry into the way our Bamiyan mission operated.

The report contained multiple criticisms from the lack of a campaign plan through to personnel being sent to Afghanistan with boots so inadequate they eventually bought their own.

Compelled to release the report to the Herald, the Defence Force said it never left draft form because it was "insufficiently accurate to be released".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Yet a Herald source with close knowledge of the report said the only concerns raised about the report were over the media obtaining a copy.

The Defence Force is under considerable pressure over how straightforward it has been with the public after evidence emerged of civilian casualties in an SAS raid, contradicting statements made by the military.

The "shelved" report is the only review ever carried after our 10-year deployment to Bamiyan province which cost eight lives from more than 3500 personnel who served there in a mission that cost about $300 million.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Herald sought the report in early 2014 shortly after it had been submitted in a draft form but it took until last December for it to be released with a letter from Commander Joint Forces NZ, Major General Tim Gall, saying it had not been accepted because of accuracy concerns.

When the Herald sought evidence supporting the claims of inaccuracy, the Defence Force said it no longer existed.

The Defence Chief of Staff, Royal NZ Navy Commodore Ross Smith, told the Herald "there are no further documents that I can send you".

He said the only existing criticisms are the notes which appeared with some of the criticisms in the draft report. "You will note that many issues received no, or only terse, reactions."

Discover more

New Zealand

'Ours is a dangerous profession'

20 Aug 05:30 AM
New Zealand

NZ flag lowered at Bamiyan's Kiwi base

04 Apr 06:58 PM
New Zealand|politics

Questions on how NZDF cares for fallen

30 Mar 04:00 PM
New Zealand

Military suicides reveal care gaps

24 Jul 09:37 AM

Of the 114 issues raised in the report, Smith was able to point to five issues on which there were criticisms.

A Herald analysis of the draft report does not show widespread argument with its contents. Of the 114 issues raised, there are comments on about 30 issues, largely agreeing with the reviewers' findings.

Smith said the comments were gathered when an earlier paper copy of the draft report was circulated for feedback among the command network at Headquarters Joint Forces New Zealand.

New Zealand's mission to Bamyan in Afghanistan went beyond enforcing security to rebuilding infrastructure and help people through health clinics.
New Zealand's mission to Bamyan in Afghanistan went beyond enforcing security to rebuilding infrastructure and help people through health clinics.

Those sent the draft report made comments on the drafts which were returned to the J8 team. The comments were then inserted into a central electronic copy of the document.

"The circulated paper copies were then disposed of, to ensure that different versions of the synopsis did not exist," said Smith. He said there was no paperwork showing the date on which the comments were added or when the draft report was canned.

"The Commander Joint Forces at the time simply declined to sign the document and it was shelved."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There was no record of the date on which it was canned but a timeline also released through the Official Information Act showed the draft was completed about the time the Herald first sought the report in early 2014.

A time line prepared for the Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Tim Keating shows then-Minister of Defence Jonathan Coleman was briefed on the Herald's request before the Defence Force first refused to release it.

Current Minister of Defence Gerry Brownlee was briefed last October after the Office of the Ombudsman told the NZDF it had to make the report public.

Smith said the briefing to the minister was oral and even though there may have been notes taken it was not possible to check because earthquake damage had restricted access to Defence Headquarters.

After the meeting between the Defence Force and Brownlee, the military changed its position on releasing the report and refused again to make it public. The intervention of Chief Ombudsman Judge Peter Boshier saw it eventually released after he expressed his "unhappiness" to Keating in a meeting.

Private Kirifi Mila lost his life in February 2011 after an accident in a Humvee. The report, and the inquiry into his death, said soldiers couldn't train on the vehicles before deployment.
Private Kirifi Mila lost his life in February 2011 after an accident in a Humvee. The report, and the inquiry into his death, said soldiers couldn't train on the vehicles before deployment.

Brownlee and Coleman refused to answer questions relating to the report.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In a written statement, Brownlee said: "I became Minister of Defence quite some time after the last deployment left Afghanistan so I haven't handled issues relating to the Provincial Reconstruction Team. Questions about this should be directed to the NZDF."

Brownlee said he had been told the draft report was "not accepted" by Joint Forces Headquarters.

The Defence Force refused to make anyone available for interview and after answering some questions by email said: "We have nothing further to add."

The Herald has also spoken to the parents of servicemen who have lost their lives in recent years who have called on NZDF to be more upfront with questions it faces.

Venus Poa, whose son, Douglas Hughes, died in Afghanistan, said she had unanswered questions which had never been satisfactorily answered.

There were nagging doubts and the question: "do they tell you everything?"

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It makes you lose faith in them," she said.

A military inquiry found Hughes had taken his own life in an incident just a few weeks before he was due to return home. It was a dark year, with five others killed just a few months later.

Then, 12 months later, New Zealand pulled out of Bamiyan declaring "mission accomplished".

"I wish they had done that earlier," said Poa. "Why wait for so many lives to be taken and then pull people out?"

Andrew Carson, whose son, Ben, died in the 2010 Anzac Day Air Force helicopter crash, said he and wife, Pauline, had total confidence in what they were being told at the time of the accident.

However, he said that confidence was eroded in the months and years since.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Carson said the Defence Force should not have responsibility for holding its own inquiries into serious issues in which lives were lost.

"Nobody will be accountable for anything because if they say anything about someone three rungs up the ladder, that's the end of their career."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Crime

Mongrel Mob mum jailed after going into hiding during daughter's murder trial

11 May 07:00 AM
Crime

Wilhelmina Shrimpton shares update after car sideswiped in Kingsland

New Zealand

Ferry crew member confirmed as new Auckland measles case

11 May 06:49 AM

One tiny baby’s fight to survive

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Mongrel Mob mum jailed after going into hiding during daughter's murder trial

Mongrel Mob mum jailed after going into hiding during daughter's murder trial

11 May 07:00 AM

Kelly-Anne Burns never returned after being granted short-term bail to attend a funeral.

Wilhelmina Shrimpton shares update after car sideswiped in Kingsland

Wilhelmina Shrimpton shares update after car sideswiped in Kingsland

 Ferry crew member confirmed as new Auckland measles case

Ferry crew member confirmed as new Auckland measles case

11 May 06:49 AM
64 Auckland beaches flagged as unsafe for swimming

64 Auckland beaches flagged as unsafe for swimming

11 May 05:52 AM
Connected workers are safer workers 
sponsored

Connected workers are safer workers 

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP