It has been two weeks since the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) group challenging the vaccine mandate, known as United We Stand, filed for an interim High Court order to block the discharge of some service members, whose release date was today (21 October 2022). An eleventh-hour teleconference resulted in the 4 applicants named in the filing having their discharge stayed but the NZDF has now terminated the service of another 22 of its service members for refusing the covid vaccine.

Among those whose careers in the NZDF were ended today, was a 30+ year officer and veteran of many battle arenas. Some have young families on a single income. Others include pregnant women due to have their first children. All of these are NZDF members who have served New Zealand in various capacities with loyalty and honour.

This has been a battle that has been drawn out over the past year, since the vaccine mandate was introduced by the Chief of Defence Force (CDF). A timeline of the mandate challenge is as follows:

Sept 2021	CDF imposes first internal vaccine mandate, directing the discharge of members that are unvaccinated.
Dec 2021	Under pressure from a legal challenge against the internal mandate, the NZDF requests that the government makes an order to mandate all members of the armed forces and NZDF civilians. The order is made by Minister Michael Wood one week before the interim hearing against the CDF would have occurred and the NZDF removes their internal mandate as it is now redundant.
Feb 2022	The Wellington High Court rules that the vaccination order made by Minister Wood mandating NZDF and Police is unlawful and overturns it, four days prior to the discharge date stipulated in the order.
Mar 2022	Police proactively engages with affected staff and welcomes them back to work. NZDF ignores a letter from its affected staff and maintains vaccine passports requirements in most work areas. Government launches an appeal against the February High Court ruling.
Apr 2022	Government announces a withdrawal of vaccine passports and mandates for a number of areas. The CDF moves against the all of government direction, releasing a new directive (an internal mandate) that orders retention reviews of unvaccinated service members and imposing tight timelines for their discharge.
May 2022	The Crown drops its appeal of the February High Court ruling, likely due to having a poor chance of success. Under pressure from another legal challenge, CDF rescinds his directive from the month prior, again during the week prior to it being heard in court. The CDF replaces his directive with a Defence Force Order, directing largely the same process and imposing tight timelines for discharge. A fourth legal challenge is launched against the latest version of vaccine mandate for service members. The CDF puts out a draft directive for consultation that civilian staff and contractors will be mandated if coming into Defence Areas. Following overwhelming opposition he chooses to withdraw it.
Jul 2022	The interim hearing occurs in the Wellington High Court where they rule against CDF and block the discharge of service members until a finding from the substantive hearing.
19 Sep 2022	Judicial Review hearing occurs in the Wellington High Court. Despite the fact that the government had removed all other government mandates the week prior the judge supports the mandate.
29 Sept 2022	The judge rules that the mandate is lawful and dismisses the Judicial Review.
07 Oct 2022	United We Stand files an Appeal against the High Court Ruling. The group also files for an interim order to block the pending discharge of service members (terminal date set for 21 Oct).
21 Oct 2022	The High Court has not yet scheduled a time for the Interim Hearing but the judge has an urgent teleconference to determine if the Court will provide interim relief. The NZDF agrees to not discharge the people that are named on the proceedings but will discharge everyone else. The Judge does not see the other people being discharged as party to the proceedings so does not agree to stop them being discharged.

The NZDF has maintained that operational requirements as the reason for this mandate. United We Stand published an extract from an OIA response in July which shows that over 48% of the NZDF are classified as “unfit” for overseas deployment regardless. For senior officers of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and above this sits at 54% as is shown below. Note that training and support roles are included in the total and staff filling those roles are retained as long as they can capably fulfill their duties.

It is notable that approximately 10% of the entire NZDF has been affected by the vaccine mandate (figures as at early April). Prior to today, there were only 39 Regular Force members who had not received any vaccine doses. 22 of these have now been discharged with the remainder retained for another 12 months and then subject to another review.

The Territorial Force will undergo the same process in approximately 6 weeks, with 50-100 members impacted.

Of the currently serving NZDF members who are vaccinated, those who have refused boosters will likely be discharged in June 2023, unless the Courts rule otherwise or the Government intervenes.

The NZDF is currently experiencing record rates of personnel turnover. The annual attrition rates were released by Defence Public Affairs on 5 October 22 and showed:

• Navy 14.2%
• Army 17.4%
• Air Force 11.4%
• Civilian 16.4%

A source within the NZDF officer ranks stated that usual attrition rates varied between 6-10%, with 10% being the highest tolerable for maintenance of capability.

This is the first article in a series on the NZDF vaccine mandate. Our next article will cover the impact that the high rate of attrition this year has had on NZ’s Defence Force capability and preparedness.

Where To From Here?

The next Interim Hearing date is still unknown but will likely be in the next few weeks. The hearing in Court of Appeal has not received a date as yet but this is expected to be in the next 12 months.