Well, this is not something I was expecting – NZ’s mainstream media is reporting on the record numbers of people leaving the Army, Navy and Defence Force:
Personnel are leaving our Defence Force in record numbers.
With many being lured away by better pay and conditions, the attrition rate is the highest it’s been in decades.
Yes, 16% attrition overall for the army – for some key trades and branches, it’ll be much higher than that.
The Chief of the Defence Force told Newshub it could take up to a decade to replace highly-skilled staff and he needs Government help now.
“The level of attrition is one of the highest we’ve recorded for many decades,” said Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short.
All three armed forces have experienced growing attrition rates, especially over the past year. The major concern is the Army – topping 16 percent in June, double what was forecast.
Driving that are job opportunities and better conditions outside the military offering tens of thousands of dollars more.
“At the moment we aren’t competing, that’s why we’re losing people,” Air Marshal Short said.
Those are remarkably forthright words – the budget gave a pathetic amount for remuneration corrections, most people in the army have not had a pay rise in many years. What was the response of the Labour government to our personnel leaving in record numbers (having dutifully been taken away from their families for the legally-questionable Operation Protect)? It was a paltry 1% pay rise. Inflation is over 7%. Wage Inflation (measured by the Labour Cost Index) for the public sector is over 3% (over 4% for the last quarter). Huge numbers of experienced (and over-worked) senior and middle ranking officers and soldiers are walking into pay-packets many thousands of dollars above their NZDF salaries.
Newshub asked Defence Minister Peeni Henare multiple times to interview for this story. His office declined, instead sending us a statement that highlighted the $90 million in Budget 2022 targeted specifically for remuneration.
Already that’s not enough, especially with the increasing cost of living.
“It doesn’t address that at the moment so we are falling further behind,” Air Marshal Short said.
The toll of Operation Protect also saw more than 600 personnel leave, unhappy with repeated tours of MIQ.
This is quite remarkable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Air Marshal Short was brought in for ‘morning tea without coffee’ in the Minister’s office. He has publicly spoken the truth that the pay and conditions in the NZDF have been so severely eroded that it’s going to take years to correct.
Ron Mark is quoted throughout the article, highlighting that:
“[We’re] losing NCOs, warrant officers, field officers, in those ranks that you can’t afford to lose,”
It’s not like NZ is unique here – Australian top brass has said similar things to their new Labour bosses just one week ago:
Defence chiefs have warned the Albanese government to boost troops’ and bureaucrats’ pay and perks to meet recruitment targets amid acute labour shortages and rising tensions with China, while also highlighting personnel are being overstretched on non-military tasks such as disaster relief and COVID-19.
Remarkably similar to the situation here in NZ! Troops hate doing jobs that take them away from their core role. Two and a half years of guarding hotel corridors is arguably the biggest waste of highly-trained assets in NZ’s history. With the cost of living going through the roof, public sector wages rising (the public-sector pay freeze was a slogan only, every department has simply created hundreds of extra highly paid jobs) and other conditions being steadily eroded by successive governments (housing, health, barracks rotting and food getting worse and worse), it’s no wonder that there is an attrition crisis crippling the NZDF.
No Minister 
One has to wonder how many of the so called foot soldiers were disillusioned by their so called betters employing them as hotel security guards in the first place, then contemplated using them as tow truck drivers and as Parliamentarty riot police.
After all they were probably of the same type themselves, yet their betters were prepared to stoop to involvement in local politics when the correct answer was “fuck off” and use the police.
Tends to undermine morale.
Not just the traditional aspects of the military either. A good mate has just walked away from a 16 year career into private sector 35% pay increase on his existing six-figure salary – plus lots of goodies like private health insurance for the family.
Not just the NZDF. The Police are facing the same situation. The freeze on pay has seen quality staff exit to where the grass in greener and where they feel their service is valued over the empty rhetoric they hear from Ministers Hipkins and Henare.
Chickens coming home to roost big time.
Heh – a comment from another mate in the NZDF….
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
In his case they’re lucky because although he’s a few years from retirement he can’t be bothered shifting.
Following a full dress Mess dinner at Summer Concentration, the night was young and we repaired to a strip bar. This was Calgary, Alberta.
So… the proprietor and the door guard assumed we were a doorman and bellhop convention.
Funny. But also, not.
Your and Oz’s RSL clubs beat Canadian civilian acknowledgement/ respect hollow.
So there’s that.
When you have a Govt where no one has ever been in the services and have a left wing outlook what do you expect.
An extended family member did an electricians apprenticeship in the Navy some years ago. As I recall the apprenticeship took about 5 years and he stayed about another 5 then left and set up his own business in the Hamilton area.
He hasn’t looked back financially and says the training received was better than could be sourced through the current polytech system because so much of it was `hands on’ rather than from a book and lectures.
Major Star,
You have stated that “most people in the Army have not had a pay increase for several years”. Is that actually true (assuming several to be 3 or more)?
Could you indicate when there was last a general pay increase in the NZDF? And perhaps the totality of pay increases since, say, 2015.
I appreciate that with a scale based system that most people get an increase each year by going up the scale. However, I am assuming you are talking about a general increase across all steps on the scale.
I know there was a pay freeze in the public sector for the first and perhaps the second year of the Covid measures. So that would cover 2020 and 2021. But that does not really meet the definition of several years. I would also note there really weren’t any pay increases in the private sector in those two years. Most people were grateful just to keep hold of their jobs.
I can see that in 2022 there has been a substantial increases in remuneration across a lot of the private sector, driven by tight employment conditions as well as inflation. Is this really the main issue?
Dr Mapp, thank you for your reply
The last across the board pay rises for everyone since 2009 are as follows, percentages may be more or less depending on some trades being targeted):
2018: 1.7%
2016: 3.0%
2014: 1.5%
2012: 4.5%
Those increases were below Labour Cost Index increases according to Stats NZ. Since 2009, Wage Inflation for public sector middle managers and professionals has increased by a total of 21.8%, NZDF pay for middle- and junior-leaders (field ranking officers, subalterns, warrant officers and Senior NCOs) has gone up by approximately 11.4%.
Of course, this isn’t to mention Consumer Price Index which has gone up by 30.1% since 2009.
My point about the pay freeze in the public sector is that it was largely a myth – whilst departments couldn’t increase the salary of an individual who was earning more than $100K, they could (and very much did!) create a swathe of new jobs and people could (and did!) just move into those higher paid jobs, getting a pay rise not only for themselves but also for the person stepping into their old role. The public sector has increased by 28% – and it isn’t low-level jobs being created either! (https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129817523/more-work-or-out-of-control-bureaucracy-labours-swelling-public-service)
The main issue is really threefold:
1. Low morale, degraded trained state and high frustration due to Op Protect and other conditions of service.
2. NZDF salaries have not kept up with either the public sector or private sector.
3. High attrition makes the workload for those remaining in the services even higher.
It’s remarkable that in this article, CDF has been so forthright about government actions. To my knowledge, we have not seen that sort of thing in a very long time, am I mistaken?
Major Star,
Thank you.
No general increase since 2018. That certainly is several years!
During that time large parts of the public sector, particularly in Health and Education, have received large increases. Plus lots of new jobs in HR, PR, etc with very high initial salaries.
As Ross Miller notes, it seems those who are not fashionably in favour, such as Defence, Police and no doubt, Customs and Corrections, have been on a stringent salary freeze.
In contrast, it is really easy to reclassify a job such as a Policy Advisor, a category beloved by the Left, to give a substantial salary increase. An opportunity that is denied to those occupations, such as the NZDF and Police, with their very clearly defined and publicly known rank structure.
I would also note that the 4.5% increase in 2012 was in recognition of the pay freeze during the GFC. In 2010 ad 2011 we did sort out the superannuation issue and put a lot of allowances into the basic pay. These were not done as part of general pay increases.
I was discussing this military issue over a year ago with a retired Army Officer friend , who’d been called back from retirement to run a quarantine hotel.
He reported the terrible soldier morale and a personal call with a certain General he served with. Comment was “ we won’t have an army if the Govt. persist in making us baby sitters”
Seems rather prophetic now .
This should be unacceptable to both parties. That is a real terms 20% decline over 14 years. At the same time median wages and GDP have gone up substantially. The question is what can we do about it. Will National make any change? They are not going to feel in a position to make a major increase in pay after the spendthrift times of Ardern but surely there is space for a pre-election review to set far more acceptable comparables. Is a private soldier even getting minimum wage when considering the time spent training and effectively on duty?
My son recently left the Army after 6 years and training as a Diesel mechanic, he’s now in Australia and on 67 dollars per hour and laughing all the way to the bank.
Tom, I am very curious to know how much he was earning when he left the Army.