Civil-Military Relations and an Inspector-General of Defence for Aotearoa New Zealand

• Date: 01 January 2024

97



Inspector-General of Defence for Aotearoa

New Zealand



Abstract

is article looks at civil-mil itary relations in New Zealand in the light of the ndings

of a Government Inquiry into a special forces operation in Afghanistan (the Bur nham

Inquiry). e Inquiry found a militar y that was not fully informing its civilian leadersh ip

of important informat ion regarding, inter alia, civilia n casualties. is led to the Inquiry

recommending that an Inspector- General of Defence (IGD) be estab lished to investigate

allegations ma de against the defenc e forces and to assess po licy and practic e, in order

to report back to the Minister of De fence. is art icle looks at what the IGD adds to the

regulatory f ramework for the military and argu es that it is a welcome step in improving

accountability for the military and increasing the levels of civil-military interconnection.

New Zealand’s military has been granted a signicant degree of trust in how it has operated

for many decades. is accord s closely with Hunting ton’s theory of “objective control”.

e IGD’s role should s erve to bri ng it under closer control by civilian leadership. i s

is an important d evelopment for the co nstitutiona l protections of civilian control of th e

military and mi nisterial accountabi lity to Parliament.

I. Introduction

The deployment in A fghanist an, lasti ng as it did for 20 years , was New Zealand’s

longest conti nuous mil itar y engagement out side of peacekeepin g. It involved

complex mili tary i nterventions, includi ng by high ly trained specia l forces.1 Yet, in

spite of its signi cance in the country’s milita ry his tory, it is not able that it wa s

largely u nderreporte d in New Zeala nd media.2 One piec e of investigat ive journa lism,

1 Stephen Hoad ley “New Zeala nd civil–m ilita ry relations i n Afgha nista n: Aims, as sessments, a nd

lessons” in Wil liam Maley and Su sanne Schmeid l (eds) Reconstructing Afghanistan: Civil-Military

Experiences i n Comparative Pers pective (Routledge , Abbingdon, 2014) 43.

2 Donald Mat heson “‘Can’t tal k now, mate’: New Zea land news media and t he invisible Afg han

war” in Richa rd Keeble and John Mair (eds) Afghanis tan, War and the Me dia: Deadlin es and

Frontlines (Arima , Bury St Edmu nds, 2010) 276.

* Associat e Profess or, Facult y of Law, Univer sity of Ca nterbu ry.

98 [Vol 31, 2024]

however, did have an outs ized impact on t he way the Af ghan istan Wa r will b e

remembered in New Z ealand, at least i nstitution ally. That work was the public ation

of the book Hit & Ru n by Nicky Hager and John St ephenson in 2017.3 The allegations

in the book led t o the esta blishment of a publ ic Inqui ry (the Bur nham I nquir y)

which found tr oubling fai lings by the m ilitar y in how it relates t o the democratica lly

elected and c ivilia n leadership of t he country. One of the I nquiry’s re commendations

was that a n independent Inspector G eneral of Defence be establ ished to provide an

oversight and a ccountabilit y mechanism to i mprove civil-mil itary relat ions.

This art icle looks at the oce of the Inspector-Gene ral of Defence (IGD), startin g

with a di scussion of why it s formation wa s recommended. It t hen tur ns to a disc ussion

of why civil-m ilita ry relat ions are imp orta nt and should be i mproved in New

Zeala nd. The IGD’s statutory fr amework is a potentia lly useful way to develop bot h

investig ations of complaint s as well as assessment s of potential polic y and practice.

Althoug h the IGD does not have the power to nd civil or cri minal r esponsibilit y,

it has signic ant investigator y p owers wh ich allow it to provide a much bet ter

understa nding of the oper ations of the New Zeal and Defence Force (NZDF) th an was

possible prior t o its establ ishment. Alt hough it has it s aws (notably its troublingly

evidentia l immunity prov isions for cooperative wit nesses), it has great potent ial to

improve civi l milita ry relations i n New Zealand a s the country mo ves beyond its War

on Terror deployments a nd into a new strate gic era which seems likel y to focus far

more on China .

II. Inspector General of Defence –

Origin Story

The oce of the I nspector Ge neral of Defence wa s establis hed by the Inspec tor-

General of Defence Ac t 2023 (the Act). Ta king a long er view of the rea sons for the

formation of the IGD, it i s suggeste d that it was somet hing of an i nevitabi lity once the

country de cided to join the Un ited States i n its contentious i nvasion of Afgh anista n.4

Joining t he United St ates-led coa lition mea nt that New Ze aland wa s engagi ng in

what Kaldor refers to as a “New War”.5 Thes e complex conicts, apparent ly loca l

in cha racter, involve my riad interna tional connec tions and in uences which ma ke

them more dicult to successfully prosecut e than the “Old Wars” of the 20th cent ur y.6

3 Nicky Hager and John Stephenson Hi t & Run: e New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning

of Honour (Pot ton & Burton , Nelson, 2017).

4 Ryan T Will iams “Dan gerous Prec edent: Amer ica’s Illega l War in A fghani stan” (2011) 33 U Pa J

Intl L 563.

5 Mar y Kaldor New & O ld Wars: Organized Violence in a Glo bal Era (2nd ed , Stanford Univers ity

Press, Stanford, 2007).

6 At 2.