Phil Goff misleads on state of Defence Force

  • Jonathan Coleman
Defence

Phil Goff continues to mislead the New Zealand public on the state of the New Zealand Defence Force, says Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman.

“On the back of today’s Select Committee hearing on defence, Mr Goff has painted a misleading picture on the state of the NZDF,” says Dr Coleman.

“He is completely distorting the Chief of Defence Force’s words when he claims that the CDF says it will take seven years for the NZDF to ‘recover from the damage done to it in the last couple of years’.

“The reality is that all the objective measures of attrition and morale in the NZDF are very positive. Attrition rates have fallen dramatically and are back within historical ranges. Morale has continued to trend upwards since the start of 2012, and the latest internal survey shows 80% of personnel rate their morale as satisfactory or better.

“Mr Goff also continues to state the Navy is unable to put ships to sea and the Air Force is unable to meet its outputs. The truth is, despite the attractiveness of our highly skilled people to the private sector and the pressure on critical trades, the Navy and Air Force are delivering on all the tasks that the Government has set for them. For example, HMNZS Te Mana will shortly take up counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Otago are supporting other Government agencies, and HMNZS Canterbury continues to provide support to Exercise Southern Katipo in Timaru.

“Mr Goff is determined to undermine the morale of our NZDF personnel with misquotes, half-truths and out of date figures presented in a misleading context.”