The Government's cutbacks to New Zealand Defence Force budgets are to blame for the terrible state of defence facilities, Labour Party MP Phil Goff says.
A briefing to new Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said a backlog of deferred maintenance had left defence property increasingly unfit for purpose and, in many cases, dilapidated.
Mr Goff said the situation was unacceptable.
"That means, effectively, we have our Defence Force personnel living and working in areas that are in a poor state of repair, and the poor state of repair means that the cost of actually remedying that gets worse every year that they further defer maintenance on it."