Internal reports to Defence Minister Judith Collins in February said the navy had significant deficiencies in required experienced and qualified staff. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The Defence Minister's office says questions of whether the state of the navy contributed to the Manawanui's sinking off Samoa are best directed to the New Zealand Defence Force.
The navy was reported early this year to be "extremely fragile".
Internal reports to minister Judith Collins in December 2023 said it had "significant deficiencies in required experienced and qualified staff, predominantly in technical trades and in supervisory ranks".
The NZDF has since been trying to plug high turnover, with signs of it working in part.
RNZ asked Collins if she would ensure this was within the scope of Defence's court of inquiry.
Collins told RNZ its terms of reference had not yet been finalised by the NZDF.
"I have full trust that the NZDF will take into account any relevant information in order to establish what occurred.
"It is not appropriate for me, as minister, to get involved in the court of inquiry process."
The $100 million Manawanui was in a "maintenance period" before it went to Samoa. "The ship was determined safe to deploy," the navy told RNZ on Tuesday.
Collins' office said "there was nothing out of the ordinary with the maintenance".
The Taxpayers' Union lobby group said conjecture on the cause of the sinking was running wild and there must be transparency.
"Promises made by the minister for a 'short-and-sharp' inquiry are only as good as the transparency that follows," it said.
The navy said some parts of the inquiry, which is a fact-finding exercise, would likely be public but others would remain confidential, say, for commercial reasons.
In a statement, the NZ Defence Force said it had not yet finalised the terms of reference. "Our priority has been on the welfare of our people and ensuring an appropriate response to any potential environmental impacts," it told RNZ.
'Hollowness' in workforce - NZDF advice to minister
Defence Force advice to Collins shortly after she took the job described workforce "hollowness".
"The paucity of personnel in critical trades means that sustaining force generation, delivering operational outputs, introducing new and upgraded capabilities and meeting maintenance demands concurrently is beyond NZDF's capacity in the short to medium term," it said.
Since then, the Budget in May put $570m over four years into Defence pay and equipment upgrades.
"We need to stabilise the force," Collins said at the time, saying she was aiming to cut staff turnover to 7 percent - attrition peaked in 2022, and in 2023 was especially acute in the navy, hitting over 17 percent, but by this April was reported across Defence as at about 11 percent, which is close to public service averages.
By September, more than 200 civilian Defence Force staff had opted for voluntary redundancy, and a restructure was planned to cut costs.