Letter to Minister: Section 9, Part 2.

On the 11th of November 2024, Mission Homefront wrote a letter to Government officials, outlining our concerns around enforcing uniformed personnel to cover labour shortages caused by defence civilian strikes.

Here is the letter, in it's entirety:

Dear Hon Judith Collins Minister of Defence and Hon Chris Penk Associate Minister of Defence 

On behalf of Mission Homefront, we write to express our concerns relating to the recent directives to invoke Section 9, Part 2 of the Defence Act 1990, requiring uniformed personnel to cover labour shortages caused by defence civilian strikes.

We are concerned that these orders are placing significant strain on New Zealand’s soldiers, sailors and aviators, negatively impacting their wellbeing and whānau. The orders have resulted in the cancellation of Christmas and New Year leave for many uniformed New Zealand Defence Force personnel. More time away from their families adds to existing stress and contributes to a decrease in morale for people who are already managing unrealistic workloads and working multiple roles. Being forced to fill in civilian tasks such as gate security, performed day and night, is stretching people’s patience. 

Mission Homefront acknowledges that this is not intended as a long term, durable solution. However, many uniformed personnel are already struggling to manage their own tasks, often with acting rank, a lack of training and experience to perform higher duties, low pay, and low levels of welfare support. The sentiment among uniformed personnel with the section 9 measure is overwhelmingly one of frustration, feeling the situation is disrespectful to both themselves and their civilian counterparts. 

The longstanding relationship between uniformed and civilian staff relies on the trust. Each cannot do their jobs without the support provided by the other. The temporary section 9 decision undermines this relationship, which is essential to the effective functioning of the Defence Force. Some civilians who are striking say it’s incredibly difficult to watch uniformed personnel being called in to do civilian jobs, knowing they are already overstretched. 

It is difficult to imagine the circumstances that warranted the recommendation to you that this was the best course of action.

The measure, while temporary, cannot distract from the failure of successive Governments to adequately resource the Defence Force. This section was last used during nurses industrial action in 2018, and in 1996 during the prison guards’ strike, and before that, under earlier law in the waterfront dispute in 1951. It is unprecedented that uniformed Defence staff are now tasked to backfill civilian Defence staff shortages because of industrial action. This is unacceptable, and symptomatic of the chronic underfunding of our Defence Force over past decades. 

The role of the Chief of Defence Force is to oversee New Zealand’s military capability and its support functions. The fact that defence civilians feel they need to take strike action over their pay, is testament that successive Defence Chiefs, and successive Governments have not taken their responsibilities seriously to ensure that personnel are well treated.

We strongly encourage the Government and the NZDF to keep the wellbeing of Defence personnel and civilian workers at the forefront of negotiations and decisions.

Yours sincerely,

Mission Homefront Directors and Co-Founders; Hayden Ricketts and Erin Speedy