NZDF weapons stock at Feb 24, 2022
James Hunter made this Official Information request to New Zealand Defence Force
The request was partially successful.
From: James Hunter
Dear New Zealand Defence Force,
(A) Following the invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, I understand the NZ government was presented at a cabinet meeting with a list of options (possibly via Peeni Henare) they could take in response. These may have included sending weapons. What were the options?
(B) At 24 February 2022, what number of Javelin anti-armour launchers did NZDF have in stock & what number have batteries in working order?
(C) At 24 February 2022, what number of Javelin ATGM did NZDF have in stock?
(D) At 24 February 2022, what number of M72 LAW / NLAW did NZDF have in stock?
(E) Have any of these weapons been used in training in NZ since Feb 24 2022? If so, how many?
(F) How did the NZDF acquire the Javelin & M72 LAW / NLAW? Bought of gifted & from which entity?
(G) In what year/s did they arrive in NZ?
(H) What year/s were the weapons the NZDF has in stock manufactured?
At post cabinet meetings, numbers of items were not specified, just vague reference as to how long the quantity would last in battle. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eq...)
notes quantities of these & I am interested to know if this is correct plus the additional information.
Yours faithfully,
Mr Hunter
From: Ministerial Services
New Zealand Defence Force
Dear James
Please find attached a response to your request for information.
Kind regards
Corporate and Ministerial Services
OCDF, Office of Chief of Defence Force
New Zealand Defence Force
[1]www.nzdf.mil.nz
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
"Cabinet information regarding the options is being prepared for proactive release. This information will be made available on both the Ministry of Defence and New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) websites. This part of your request is declined in accordance with section 18(d) of the OIA."
The Ombudsman's guideline on section 18(d) of the OIA is very clear that best practice involves specifying a timeframe when refusing to release information because it will be publicly available "soon". If an agency is unable to do this, it implies that they may not be legally justified in using this reason to refuse a request. You might want to ask NZDF to clarify their timeframe for this information being made publicly available.
"As a matter of good practice, agencies should provide the precise or approximate date by which the information will be published. A failure to do so may suggest that there is no reasonable certainty that the information will be published in the near future. However, there is no legal requirement under the OIA to provide the planned publication date"
https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/site...
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