The Election 2023 Veterans Policy of the NONE OF THE ABOVE PARTY (NOTA)
(Not a real political party!)
Introduction
They are some of our most talented, resourceful and resilient citizens. Do veterans deserve special treatment? YES! NOTA intends to leverage veteran capability for everyone’s benefit.
There has been too many reviews and delays in helping injured and sick veterans. It is time to say ‘Fair’s Fair’ and commit to action.
One of the often-cited challenges is defining who is a veteran. For NOTA, this is not hard at all. If the person has a service number – meaning they have been attested into the New Zealand Defence Force – they are a veteran. NZ Police put themselves in physical danger and some deploy to peace keeping and other types of foreign operations. So too do many other employees of the Public Sector. There will be provisions to cover these situations.
POLICY PLANK #1 – Let Veterans Choose
Government must stop trying to guess what veterans want and let them chose according to their own need. All veterans will have access to and choice over a range of transferrable benefits. This will be set out in a Veterans Covenant Act. It is recognised that when any family member serves in the arms of state, their entire family is affected by that service in some way.
POLICY PLANK #2 – Veterans’ Policy is Part of Our National Security Strategy
The way veterans are treated forms an integral part of our approach to recruitment and retention across the arms of state. The all-volunteer, full-time force model is failing throughout the western world. Voluntary National Service (VNS) and enhanced treatment of veterans is part of our solution. We will implement a National Veterans Day.
POLICY PLANK #3 – Set the Right Veteran Legislative Environment and Support Structures
Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand (VANZ) will no longer be part of the New Zealand Defence Force. It will be re-established as an independent crown entity. All senior roles in this organisation will be held by veterans. We will establish a Veterans’ Ombudsman. We will change the Defence Act and Armed Forces Discipline Act to enable current serving veterans to belong to an overarching advocacy body – i.e. a Defence Veterans’ Association. The Volunteers Employment Protection Act will be overhauled.
POLICY PLANK #4 – Full and Ongoing Support to the Injured, Sick and Impaired
Those injured, made sick or otherwise impaired while serving will receive the full support of the state without delay to return to as close as possible the state of health they were in prior to their service. Those requiring ongoing support will receive it. No veterans will be treated under the Accident Compensation (ACC) scheme unless they choose to. Current government grants to the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association will be replaced by a larger contestable fund for all providers of remembrance, advocacy, support or purpose-building. Proportionality (i.e. how many veterans engaged in a scheme) and results will be key drivers of funding.
POLICY PLANK #5 – Research Future Needs
The government will establish a contestable research fund for work on current and future veterans’ needs. Veterans applying to this research fund will have preference over applicants not employing veterans in senior roles in their organisations.
The Intent of NOTA’s Policy
The NOTA Veterans’ Policy is represented in the overlapping circles and four-quadrant R.A.S.P. ‘veteranscape’ backdrop shown below.
At the core of the policy is the recognition that everyone who serves is a veteran. Qualifying Routine Service (pre-ACC 1974) and Qualifying Operational Service will cease to be criteria for veteran support. All veterans will be entitled to some support and there will be advantages to being a veteran. All clinical support will be needs-based rather than theatre-defined.
NOTA’s Veterans’ policy has, as one of its aims, the establishment of military service as a premium choice of occupation – especially for younger New Zealanders. We want parents, grand-parents and friends to be saying to their young ones, “Do a few years full or part time in the NZDF. It will set you up for life.”
How it Works – The Basics
All veterans will benefit by acquiring, from their first day of service, Veteran Points (VPs). These accumulate through service not circumstance, are rank-neutral and can be used in the same way that our voluntary national service scheme works e.g. to study without student debt. They will attract discounts and other benefits in society as the system beds in. VPs are transferable so a veteran can share the perks of service with their family or a veteran mate in need. They may pass to beneficiaries on death. We believe that this will assist in recruitment and retention.
A key change to service and therefore veteran remuneration is the introduction of the Veterans’ Savings and Insurance Scheme. This proposal includes an enhanced KiwiSaver plan where the government will provide an additional 1% (adjustable) employer contribution for veterans. It also introduces a range of veteran insurance benefits. The most significant of these is a medical and dental insurance package from Day 1. The NZDF will insure itself while veterans are actively serving either full or part-time. The veteran can top this package up and dependents can be added to it enabling access to private clinical care when needed.
Through the All-Of-Government banking services provider, veterans will be able to access suitable financial support at discounted rates for mortgages, commercial and personal loans.
Veterans leaving full-time service will be able to access a transition personal trainer (likely a veteran themselves) at no cost. Following passage of the Veterans’ Covenant Act, companies and other organisations will be able to identify themselves as ‘Veteran-friendly Employers’ subject to certain criteria. An enhanced preparation for employment programme will be run for those leaving full-time service. Dependents can access these programmes at any time.
The Defence Employer Support Council will be replaced with a more fit-for-purpose veteran-led advocacy organisation which will also provide advice to the Minister and make submissions to Select Committees on legislation affecting veterans.
If You are Injured, Sick or Impaired
Our veterans’ policy is a no-fault policy that covers all circumstances. This is a change from the current model where veterans have to opt-in to VANZ and ‘jump through hoops’ to prove that any disablement is more likely than not the result of service. There will be “One Law and One Door” for veterans needing help.
It is also a marked change from the current model of qualifying operational or routine service. To put it bluntly, getting shot in Waiouru hurts just as much as getting shot in a theatre of war. The state has a responsibility to put the veteran back in as close a condition as humanly possible as they were before being hurt. Veterans should not have to queue up behind gang members who have shot or stabbed each other to get surgery. ACC does not cover all the circumstances a veteran needs support for.
Qualifying Operational Service will cease to be a criterion for veteran support and will be merged into the existing criteria for national emergencies and ‘situations of national interest.’ Operational and environmental allowances as well as salary for those deployed will be tax-free.
Contestable Research Fund
We will establish a contestable research fund to enable ongoing studies of the current and future needs of veterans and their families. It will include scholarships for veterans and their family members. Veteran-led companies and individual veterans will have preference on research funding decisions.
The first project in this element of the NOTA policy is the establishment of a national register of service graves. It is deeply embarrassing that New Zealand has no idea where all its former service personnel are buried or memorialised. This will build on the excellent work already being undertaken by the New Zealand Remembrance Army.
Conclusion
The current system of veteran support fails to meet the needs of most veterans and does little to support the nation in developing its defence force. That must change. All service counts. Kiwi servicemen and women are some of our country’s most talented, skilled and effective. They deserve better acknowledgement and the opportunity to perform to their peak.
This was well summed up in a speech by Associate Defence Minister, Hon Heather Roy, to the 60th anniversary gathering of the NZ Compulsory Military Training and National Service Association in August 2009. In it, she stated:
“To serve your country is an honourable and unique undertaking. It does not matter whether your entry into the profession of arms is by the passing of a law, a ballot or a personal career choice. Neither does it matter whether your service is full-time, part-time; of long or short duration nor which service or unit you are employed in. What matters is that you served.”
The creation of a new whole-of-govt approach to veterans is long overdue. If current assessments are correct, we have little time to fix our national security ‘fence’ and acquire the capabilities the NZDF needs to fight a modern conflict. A coherent veterans’ policy forms an integral part of this. Read this policy in conjunction with our Defence Policy.
Feel free to share this policy with your local MP and candidates.
The many political parties who lack a veterans’ policy for this election are free to adopt this one.
The R.A.S.P NZ VeteranScape Team of Teams Model (Ewing-Jarvie 2021). Download the whole slidedeck from my Unclas Patreon page.
New Zealand's National Security 