Defence cap will mean Army cuts

Press, 1 June 1989, Page 8

Defence cap will mean Army cuts

By

DAVE WILSON

Manpower in the Armed Forces will have to be cut because of the Government’s cap on Defence spending, the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieuten-ant-General John Mace, confirmed yesterday. He said numbers and locations of likely reductions were not yet known but they would be in lower priority areas of the forces. The Burnham-based Ready Reaction Force would remain a top priority in the Defence structure, he said during a visit to Christchurch yesterday. The Government has capped Defence spending at last year’s level of $l4OO million a year for the next three years. In the wake of this policy, Defence has been en-

gaged in an internal costsaving exercise. General Mace said a plan on how to achieve those savings had been submitted to the Government. Staff cuts in civilian and uniformed areas of the Forces were likely, he said. General Mace did not agree with reported comments by the Secretary of Defence, Dr Basil Walker, that up to 1000 jobs could be lost. “I would be surprised if Basil Walker said that. Certainly it is felt that the staffing at headquarters in Wellington is too big, but it’s too early to put a figure on possible reductions, although they would certainly be in the hundreds.”

General Mace sajji that

if the forces were more efficient in the management of their funds, they could find savings to invest in new capital equipment. “There are areas where efficiencies can be improved. For example, maybe we have too many commercial vehicles in the forces and perhaps there is real scope for having tri-service depots.

“To that end some of our training could be on a tri-service basis, for example, drivers, chefs and stewards.” Defence sources indicate that the yet to be announced four priorities of the Defence Review, as defined by the Government last month, are:

• Preserving the security and integrity of New

Zealand, its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone and the Island States (the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau), for which New Zealand has Defence responsibilities. ® To be able to mount an effective independent military response to any low-level contingency threatening New Zealand or the protected island States.

© To be able to contribute to an effective military response, probably with Australia, to any lowlevel contingency within New Zealand’s area of direct strategic concern. This area includes mainland Australia and up to Papua New Guinea to Kiribati, east to the Cook Islands and south to the

Ross Dependency in Antarctica. ®To maintain close Defence co-operation with Australia, particularly in areas such as Defence procurement and logistic support and co-ordination of Defence activities in the South Pacific. General Mace said the Territorial Force was being examined with a view to rationalisation but it was too early for anything to be read into this. “As far as the Army’s concerned, the Ready Reaction Force is a top priority and 1 R.N.Z.1.R., the battalion returning from Singapore this year, also plays an important part in being the reinforcement unit for the R.R.F.” 4.