“Being the best in everything we do”

Quietly spoken, relaxed and confident in his new role as Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant General Jerry Mataparae ONZM, gives RSA Review’s acting editor Bill Hopper an update on New Zealand’s Defence Force.

His job is to command and manage the Defence Force, its people and resources, and to ensure the government retains confidence in it, is given the best of military advice, and has its wishes carried out to the full efficiently and effectively.

It’s all about leadership, he says, and not just from the top.
He’s a soldier’s soldier, whose 34-year career started at the bottom as an infantryman and is now responsible for the country’s total military effort.

“The vision is three services, as one force, being the best in everything we do,” is the way General Mataparae views the future of New Zealand’s Defence Force.

He says, the best is getting the right people but there were some challenges. “One of them is to recruit and retain our sailors, our soldiers and our aviators so they can work in the contemporary context. Another significant challenge will be to put the infrastructure around the people, the bases, the IT facilities, the training areas and opportunities to make sure we’re preparing our people properly.

“A third challenge is to make sure we build strong and coherent relationships with people who we would like to operate with, the Australians, the British, the Canadians, the Singaporeans, so that we can practice our business. And of course, there is one around new equipment. Whilst the main pieces have been settled on, there are still some other things we need to look forward into the next five to ten years if we are going to maintain the investment government has made in the Defence Force. It is not a finite thing, it’s a continuum; what do we do with our older vessels in the navy, our older vehicles, equipment and weapons in the army and similarly in the air force. There is still a lot of work to do.”

CDF says, in investment terms, the development of the Defence Force had been signalled through the Long Term Development Plan that government signed off in 2001/02 to support its policy, and in operating terms the Defence Sustainability Initiative last year signalled four and a half billion plus dollars operational finance.

“The announcement that we are now into negotiations for the NH90 (helicopters) is the last of the main projects of modernising the Defence Force,” he says.

“Look at the navy, with the delivery of seven new ships of three different classes adding to the extant navy, building the personnel base up is a challenge. With the air force, the helicopter force, the Orion surveillance force and the strategic and tactical airlift, again that is a challenge for the Chief of Air Force because it is not only about modernising the equipment and platforms, but it is growing the air force as well.

“The army is well embarked on its modernisation, it’s still getting some new equipment and it’s also set to increase in numbers.
“That’s the hardware, but the software in real part, is going to be in training and equipping people to be able to participate in combat and to do all the other myriad of tasks that the country and the government might want us to do.”

General Mataparae says, it was a challenging time. From his perspective it was about building on what each of the services does. “So we can deploy assets and people overseas, and identify where it is we want to make our contribution as a military force. “There is no doubt in my mind,” he says, “that it is a combat oriented force that can do all of the other things.”

The twin roles of combat and peacekeeping were still compatible. “Our raison d’etre is the force that is used in extremis circumstances, that is, when other people and other organisations can’t provide a solution and, from that, we derive our capacity to do a supposed lesser task.

When on operations, CDF says, the threats were pretty much the same. “Look at what our people are doing in Afghanistan. Every day young New Zealanders are interacting and potentially facing very real dangers which are combat type dangers.”

He says, there was a differentiation between pure peacekeeping under the UN Charter in terms of charter 6/7 operations, but in contemporary circumstances there’s a blur between combat and peacekeeping.

General Mataparae says, it was a neat time to be in the Defence Force as there had been an unprecedented level of investment and acknowledgement by the country in its capabilities.

“Over the last seven years there has been a growth in the number of activities and operations, starting with East Timor (now Timor Leste) in 1999,” he says. “Now, New Zealand has operational deployments across the globe with new ones always coming up and receding. The options for employment and deployment are pretty close to saturation point, but our game is to manage and reprioritise.

“The message is, you revel in this time of what could, for some, be unprecedented public support for the Defence Force. Those young New Zealanders, you train them well and they deliver exceptionally well. I’m always gratified when I hear other people telling me how well our people work and operate on operations and in training in just about everything we do.”

CDF says he could be seen to be painting an overly optimistic picture, “but I do absolutely believe that the current circumstances for the Defence Force are exceptional.” He says they’re getting a level of investment they had not had for decades. “We’re replacing kit, helicopters that are 40 years old – they’re older than most of my aviators.

“We’re getting new equipment into the army that will allow us to put people offshore – and they’ll be safe – and at the end of the day, that’s what matters to me, that when we put a young New Zealander somewhere, I feel I’ve got to be comfortable that we’re providing them with the best level of training, of support and of equipment that we can.

General Mataparae says he can look a young service person in the eye and say, “you’ve got the best kit in the world, you’ve got the best training in the world and we’re looking after you.”