Seven years to repair damage to Defence Force

By
The Daily Blog
-
1
1
Source: Labour Party – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Seven years to repair damage to Defence Force

A report by the Auditor-General has found Government cuts to the Defence Force caused substantial damage the Defence Force Chief said will take seven years to repair, Labour’s Defence spokesperson Phil Goff says.

“The Government’s attempts to cut costs in Defence caused record low morale and high attrition.

“Huge damage has been done to the Army where personnel attrition rates reached 24 per cent, and the Navy which reached 23 per cent attrition.

“The Auditor-General reports a lack of personnel in key sections of the Army has reduced preparedness from ‘substantially prepared’ to ‘partially prepared’.

“The report says there is now a risk around the Army’s ability to sustain a deployed force.

“Shortages in skilled and experienced personnel mean the Defence Force is unable to properly crew its ships and helicopters.

“The new offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington ‘was unavailable for most of the year’ because of crewing constraints. Only four of the six patrol vessels could be put to sea.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

“Limited numbers of trained crews and a shortage of instructor pilots meant the Air Force was unable to meet outputs and readiness measures for Naval Helicopter Forces.

“It is little wonder the outgoing Chief of the Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones told the Select Committee it would take seven years before the damage to the Defence Force was repaired and its strength was restored.

“Highly skilled people take years to train and the people who left the Defence Force in such large numbers from 2011 to 2013 can’t simply be replaced by new recruits.

“The Defence Minster needs to take responsibility for the damage his Government’s cuts have caused,” Phil Goff says.

—

The claims and opinions made in this statement are those of the release organisation and are not necessarily endorsed by, and are not necessarily those of, The Daily Blog. Also in no event shall The Daily Blog be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on the above release content.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

1 COMMENT

  1. The retention rate wasn’t that much better under Labour, it was Phil Goff as defence minister who had to issue out retention pay to all the navy marine engineers in order to retain them as it had become so critical ships could not be manned.

    However I don’t blame politicians on both sides of the house for this problem, I blame the top brass who pull the wool over the politicians eyes in order to protect their top heavy structure. The officers in charge are a bunch of troughers.

Comments are closed.