The most significant rotation of service chiefs in decades is about to occur within the New Zealand Defence Force. It has already begun with the announcement on 23 August that current Chief of Air Force, Air Vice Marshal Andrew Clark is assuming the top job in the Government Communications Security Bureau on 30 October. Air Commodore Darryn Webb (currently Assistant Chief of Defence – Strategic Commitments and Engagements) is assuming the acting role of Chief of Air Force on promotion to Air Vice Marshal with a final decision on the role mid next year.
By convention, senior appointments close to an election are decided by an incoming government and the appointment dates for current senior roles are clustered as follows:
Chief of the Defence Force – Appointment ends April 2024
Chiefs of Navy, Army and Air – Appointment ends June 2024
Vice CDF – Appointment commenced Sep 2018
Joint Force Commander – Appointment commenced August 2018
The staggered dates make sense as you would hope the new CDF would have some say over the appointment of their direct reports. We should expect the new CDF to be announced before the end of this year.
Since the Public Service Commission provides the selection advice (effectively the human resource / recruitment processes) on these appointments, a bit of lead time is necessary. Consequently, the initial screening of candidates for these roles is probably taking place now. Those that have no chance of becoming CDF will likely have been told not to bother applying. Anecdotally, it is understood that the recommendations will be ready to put on the desk of the new Minister of Defence the day the Cabinet is announced. But who that will be is a topic for another day – albeit a very important one.
Traditionally, the CDF has been selected from amongst the two-star appointments i.e. the Vice CDF, Joint Force Commander and the three service chiefs. With the appointment of Clark to Director GCSB, that gene pool just got smaller.
However, this incremental process has not always occurred and former Prime Minister Helen Clark, to break up what she perceived as “an old boys’ club,” opened the CDF role to anyone at one-star rank or above. Air Commodore Bruce Ferguson, in December 2001, was plucked from relative obscurity as Assistant Chief of Defence – Personnel to become CDF. To draw once again on anecdotal evidence, we may be about to see a similar event.
Apart from the obvious senior incumbents, who else has a shot? It is more a question of who doesn’t, given how many one-star roles exist. And there are a couple of outliers who, while technically still in the NZDF, are currently serving on secondments to other government departments.
What’s your assessment? I’m keen to canvas views before writing a more complete league table on these appointments
New Zealand's National Security 