Rates of attrition in New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel have become a significant hindrance to operations in recent years.
In a pre-budget announcement on 8 May, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stated that attrition was “putting at risk [the NZDF’s] ability to make necessary deployments whilst also responding to events.”
To try and stop people leaving the NZDF, the Ministry of Defence announced a NZ$419 million investment into wages over the next four years, with service personnel receiving between NZ$4,000-15,000 from 1 July. It is hoped that improved pay and conditions will halt the rates of attrition and allow the NZDF to recover its capabilities.
The wages will be devoted to recruits and lower ranked service personnel including technicians, medics, combat drivers, explosive ordnance and disposal experts and Special Forces operators. This will ensure that pay will be more competitive with that offered in the private sector.
“Attrition at the end of February 2023 was 15.6 percent for the Regular Force. Within the services, Regular Force attrition was 17 percent for the Navy, 16.7 percent for the Army and 12.4 percent for the Air Force,” An NZDF spokesperson told ADM: “Civilian staff attrition was running at 15.4 percent.”
The spokesperson added: “These figures do not, however, fully portray the seriousness of the situation. In the last two years, the Regular Force has lost 29.8 per cent of its full-time, uniformed, trained, and experienced personnel (when adjusted to exclude those who had served less than two years), projected to reach 32.6 per cent by 30 June without intervention.”
This amounts to approximately 2,600 soldiers, sailors and airmen who have left the services in the past two years. For such a small military force like the NZDF, which in May had a total of 15,211 personnel, the loss of these numbers is critical.
The NZDF spokesperson said that whilst it was able to meet recent incidents like the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, “high attrition rates meant the response itself had to be adjusted.”
This included personnel deploying for longer periods and the use of a C-130H Hercules for surveillance instead of a P-3K2 Orion maritime patrol aircraft because the latter were retired early due to manning issues. Furthermore, the frigate HMNZS Te Mana was deployed instead of one of the two offshore patrol vessels because the latter are laid up alongside due to lack of crews.
Another major event at the same would have meant the NZDF facing “difficult decisions on appropriate response options,” the spokesperson added.