The Returned and Services Association is worried that the work of New Zealand's Defence Force is recognised overseas - but may be being overlooked at home.
The last of New Zealand servicemen and women to serve at Camp Taji in Iraq head home in April 2020. Photo: NZ Defence Force
It wants to know why fewer servicemen and women are receiving royal honours.
In the Queen's Birthday honours announced yesterday, just two were awarded the Distinguished Service Decoration: Lieutenant Colonel Adam Modd and an unnamed recipient - Serviceman M - who led the Whakaari / White Island ground recovery operation.
RSA national president B J Clark congratulated them and all other recipients but told Morning Report there had been a gradual decline in the number of awards for Defence Force members - and in the level of honours given - over the past 15 years.
The trend had been identified in research by an RSA member.
It was possible they were not being nominated in large numbers and if this was the case the RSA wanted to know why.
"We see the service that our service personnel carry out in their roles both within the country and overseas. They're acknowledged worldwide for the roles that they carry out and unfortunately we're seeing that perhaps internally, nationally, they're not being acknowledged."
"They're acknowledged worldwide for the roles that they carry out," RSA's national president B J Clark
Defence Force have their own awards to recognise outstanding service but Clark believed there still needed to be a place for the military to be recognised within the national honours system.
He was not suggesting preferential treatment.
"Countries around the world [are] continually acknowledging the professionalism, the dedication, the work that our Defence Force people do.
"It's just a little bit unfortunate that perhaps we're not acknowledging from our sovereign, the employers of those people don't seem to be acknowledging that quality of service."
The Defence Force members themselves were not "blowing their own trumpet", however the RSA was concerned enough about the trend to raise it publicly, he said.