SAS fundraiser 'sad' - Hodgson

A Special Air Service troop. Photo / Supplied

The Labour Party is asking the Government to find out why the defence force's elite Special Air Service (SAS) unit has been reduced to holding fundraisers for soldiers and their families.

It was revealed this weekend the SAS held a training day with 70 people from Direct Capital Ltd and associated companies at the Papakura Military Camp on October 28.

For $35,000 - $500 per person - participants were given a glimpse of SAS culture, used SAS firearms to shoot at human cut-outs and drank cocktails with war hero Corporal Willie Apiata VC.

Direct Capital had "indicated a desire" to make a charitable donation to the NZSAS Trust, established in 2004 to support past and present SAS soldiers and their families.

Defence spokesperson Pete Hodgson told Radio New Zealand he first thought it "comical" and then "sad" that the SAS has been reduced to fundraising for their families.

He was concerned soldiers, who put their lives at risk for the country, needed to raise money to support their families.

Mr Hodgson called on the Defence Minister Wayne Mapp to firstly ask the SAS not to hire themselves out to private interests, and secondly to find out what the shortfall is.

"The SAS may be under sufficient financial pressure to feel they need to do something like this. And that really troubles me."

He said the soldiers are also being distracted from their core function.

Dr Mapp has ordered an immediate inquiry after reports of the SAS sessions.

However he told media yesterday the exercise was not unusual - business groups have visited military in the past - but he was concerned about the use of firearms in the October training.

- NZHERALD STAFF and NZPA