The Defence Force called it a ‘crisis’. Pay rates in the military were 15 per cent lower than in the civilian market. Its uniformed staff were leaving in great numbers - and from critical areas. David Fisher reports on the latest efforts to keep experienced staff and what the Government
Defence Minister Judith Collins on ‘crisis’ in air force, army and navy
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In the wake of that maintenance issue, Collins said: “We know we need them to have better kit and it’s a matter of money. I haven’t got the money.
“We are in a cost-of-living crisis. We don’t have, frankly, the money that we need to put in place those sorts of assets right at the moment.”
Collins’ office told the Herald it had not put any papers before the Cabinet on the subjects of attrition or recruitment. The Minister did receive regular briefings from NZDF on the issue.
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There had also been no discussions with Australia’s military about a moratorium on New Zealand military personnel as happened about 20 years ago when special forces personnel were heading over the Tasman, Collins’ office said.
NZDF also didn’t feature in the Government’s 100-day plan which set out its top priorities having formed a government.
The attrition situation has been called a “crisis” by military leaders because many of those who left were lynchpin personnel in non-commissioned officer (NCO) roles with 5-10 years of experience. Many of them had left trades that were mission-critical: such as maintenance crew and ship’s engineers.
As a result, the three services - air force, army and navy - were operating at reduced capability with aircraft that can’t fly, ships that can’t sail and missions to which our army cannot be deployed.
Official documents have shown that the lowered level of capability impacts on New Zealand’s responsibilities to assist in the Pacific when disaster strikes - and even its ability to deal with multiple domestic incidents at the same time.
It comes at a time when key parts of our military equipment and infrastructure needs replacing from the 757s through to substandard accommodation and frigates approaching the point where replacements need to be ordered.
Among key reasons for uniformed personnel leaving were pay rates that sat around 15 per cent below market rates. The previous Government had made $419m available over four years to lift NZDF pay.
NZDF chief of staff air commodore Andrew Woods said between $50m-$60m had been spent on “retention payments”.
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NZDF has reported a range of payments including:
- A one-off payment of $10,000 to “strategically significant uniformed trades and units” using $10 million made available under the previous Government
- A one-off payment of $3661 to regular force and civilian personnel
- $75 a day to those at sea and $50 a day to those taking part in field training while allowances were reviewed.
The Herald has reported that NZDF had also made payments of up to $30,000 to NZSAS personnel if they agreed to stay on until June next year. Other personnel considered of “strategic significance” included maritime engineers needed to keep ships’ engines running and plumbers who were necessary if NZDF was required for off-shore missions.
NZDF has refused to be drawn on NZSAS attrition which leaders had been told was “vulnerable to collapse”.
Woods said NZDF had a focus on keeping in service highly skilled individuals “to lessen the impact of attrition rates”.
“The skills and experience that have been lost cannot be immediately filled by new recruits who are less trained with less military experience. It will take years to train people to replace key roles.”
Woods said it was managing the situation with funding made available under the previous Government and had also been able to fund retention initiatives out of money saved on the staffing shortfalls created by people leaving.
Even with an intense focus on recruiting and an advertising budget of $5 million a year to attract new recruits, new data shows NZDF’s overall uniformed headcount sitting around 8655 people at the end of last year.
That’s a significant drop from four years earlier when there were 9539 people serving in uniform.
The data also shows the peak of attrition for all services was hit by the NZ Army for the three months ending 2022 when 17.7 per cent of personnel left.
That period also saw the Royal NZ Navy’s peak of 16.7 per cent attrition, while the Royal NZ Air Force’s peak came three months later - March 2023 - with 13.1 per cent leaving.
According to NZDF documents in which recovery was discussed, military leaders said recruitment was not the only answer.
It was “not simply a matter of receiving applications and filling the gaps” because some recruits would not make the grade or may leave before reaching the necessary level of experience.
One document from May discussed ways NZDF could get more out of recruitment, including reviewing minimum entry standards to make sure they weren’t an obstacle to those who could otherwise serve.
It was also looking to fast-track those with a history of being involved in NZ Cadet Forces or schemes like the Limited Service Volunteer scheme - a “boot camp”-lite that only includes those who want to take part.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 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.
