Army attrition above 15% as ranks depleted
The army’s attrition rate has risen above 15%, and units and ranks are being severely depleted as more soldiers leave the Defence Force.
New figures for the army’s attrition, obtained by the National Party, show that in the year to August 2022 the attrition rate was at 17.4%, significantly higher than the 7.9% forecast to June 2023, and leaving some army trades with 25% fewer staff.
Defence Minister Peeni Henare said the Defence Force remained capable of responding to emergencies. But National Party MP and defence spokesperson Tim van de Molen said the attrition rates across the military required an urgent plan. ‘‘There are some fundamental issues around the operational readiness of our defence and if we don’t address this urgently, then we are going to struggle to deliver the outputs,’’ he said.
The army attrition figures show certain trades had a 12-month attrition rate greater than 25%: combat, combat engineer and electronic warfare operator. Armoured combat specialists had a 33.5% attrition rate.
Certain ranks within the trades also had high attrition: more than 50% for privates in the armoured division, lance corporals in electronic warfare, and sergeants in the combat trade.
The highest attrition had occurred within the army’s military police, with 62.7% attrition overall.
A single unit in the navy had attrition of 31.7%. The unit was not specified by the defence minister in a response to a written parliamentary question.
Attrition has been rising in the past year and pay has been at the centre of much of the frustration for defence personnel. A survey of staff this year found 60% disagreed their pay was fair for the work they did.
A comparison of Defence Force pay rates with equivalent civilian sector jobs found most were at least 5% below.
Van de Molen said the Government should better use available funds to increase soldiers’ pay – pointing to the Government spending $5.6 million over three years on an inspector general of defence – and to improve conditions including below-standard housing on defence bases.
The Government did allocate $90m over three years for wages in Budget 2022 and has invested to improve defence housing.
‘‘They are doing some of the work, yes, but actually, what we are seeing from these attrition numbers is this is an incredibly urgent situation and we need an urgent response.’’
Henare said attrition was at the ‘‘forefront’’ of his agenda, an issue he discussed with the Defence Force multiple times a week.
‘‘We have got lots of challenges in defence, it is one of the forefront matters ... It is a multiple pronged approach to be able to tackle this challenge and it is a big one.’’
He said the Defence Force had assured him it retained its necessary readiness, including for the coming cyclone season in the Pacific.
A spokesperson for Chief of Defence Air Marshall Kevin Short said it was difficult to retain personnel who were attracted to higher pay elsewhere in a strong labour market. Targeted retention payments, ‘‘where funding allows’’ was one policy change hoped to improve the situation, and more funding for wages was being discussed with the Government.