NZDF: 500 alcohol-related offences in five years

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Sun, 06 Nov 2011 5:07p.m.

500 alcohol-related offences were recorded by the NZDF in five years

500 alcohol-related offences were recorded by the NZDF in five years

By Brook Sabin

3 News can tonight reveal a shocking list of more than 500 alcohol-related offences committed by New Zealand Defence Force personnel.

The offences, committed over a five-year period, have been outlined in a series of reports obtained under the Official Information Act.

Click here to read one of the reports, containing 451 of the offences

Nearly 10,000 people actively serve in the NZDF and across navy, air force and the army there are 61 bars.

“I think the military does have a problem with alcohol, there's no doubt about it,” says Professor Douglas Sellman, the director of the National Addiction Centre.

The offences listed in the report include purely military charges such as disobeying orders to more serious misconduct such as intentional damage, assault, driving drunk, sexual assault and threatening to kill.

The reports also say defence force bars are significantly discounted.

They run happy hours, alcohol can be given away as prizes and alcohol promotion parties are run by alcohol suppliers.

Rebecca Williams from Alcohol Healthwatch says this is the perfect recipe for alcohol problems to occur.

“They are critical risk factors, we know availability, pricing and promotion leads to more likelihood of harm,” she says.

The NZDF has released a statement saying the vast majority of staff use alcohol sensibly, but they do acknowledge that some have made mistakes and the force is currently reviewing policy.

The documents show that possible measures include:

Riaisng alcohol prices

Limiting alcohol advertising

Raising the purchase age in defence force bars to 20.

“I've been involved in the addiction treatment field for over 25 years,” says Professor Sellman.

“And I remember 25 years ago the military was reviewing its policies around alcohol - so I'm really waiting to see something happening.”

The defence force clearly has a battle to fight - close to home.

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Comments

02 Dec 2011 02:36a.m.

Ed wrote:

Typically reporting at its most desperate attempt. Tell NZ something new. Put the age up and prices up, and they will hit the towns of the local camps. Spend more money than they can afford, end up in trouble (at home and work) and keep the NZ police even busier. Members of the NZDF deserve the privaleges of being in the service. Unfortunately this loyalty has been betrayed by its politicians and senior staff and now the media. Keep this up New Zealand, and you will have to rely on countries such as Australia and the USA to set up camp on our shores because we cant defend ourselves. A load of crap, probably investigated by a pro-labour reporter.

14 Nov 2011 04:27p.m.

Dave wrote:

What a load of BS, Having spend 20 + years in the NZDF. Why is this being reported on because the NZDF have to keep stats lets look at the North shore tradies. Oh we can't because they don't keep stats, Bagging the NZDF when its due this is not warranted. lets look at the MP's stats. People have the choice to drink or not nobody forces them to drink. Its a NZ problem the police are too soft. NZ is just a PC joke

13 Nov 2011 12:06p.m.

the-real-Bob wrote:

Also talking from experience, the Alchohol problem in the NZDF is no more so than the alchohol problem in the rest of NZ. Judging by these statistics in fact there is less of an alchohol problem in the NZDF. if the NZ police could get the offence rate down to 1% in Civvie st im sure they would be very happy with that. half of the offending is due to young soldiers who have just left home and find themselves in a world of grown ups and booze, maybe don't know their own limits so well. The good thing about the military is you have mates 2nd to none who will look after you when you are drunk meaning alot of the time you are taken to bed instead of running a rampage causing trouble. so long as there is alchohol around there will always be offending. and at a rate of 1% it could be alot worse (99% worse) and couldn't be much better (1% better)

09 Nov 2011 09:03p.m.

Chris Keeling wrote:

Having experienced and shared life with a Senior Naval Officer while appreciating due diligence I wonder how/where boundaries become blurred? In my experience any perceived lack of respect/control was clearly due to experience far removed from the dictates of perceived normality!

09 Nov 2011 02:01p.m.

Brad wrote:

I was in the airforce from 1999 - 2003. I was based at Woodbourne, Hobsonville and Whenuapai. Most people commenting on here don't know what they are talking about. I never saw my mates getting blown up, and for the most part military life is not hard. And there was and I'm sure there still is a serious problem with drinking in the military. That is from experience.

09 Nov 2011 10:22a.m.

Bob wrote:

When you see your best mate blown up or short to death you to would want to drink...

08 Nov 2011 12:33p.m.

Jim wrote:

i want to draw attention to the airforce in this report like earlyer stated the offence rate for the nzdf as a hole is aprox 1% per annum do the same maths for the airforce and in the report included in this article 33 offences over the 5 years with aprox 2500 airforce pers thats less than 7 per year or a offence rate of 0.26% about ten times less than that of the general public!

08 Nov 2011 12:12a.m.

Paul2 wrote:

Solution. Just give them all some dope - problem solved and no more war to boot.

07 Nov 2011 11:15p.m.

Dan wrote:

Ministry of Health fact sheet: over 300 alcohol related offenses committed every day in NZ. NZ population: 4,368,000 (300 x 365)/ 4368000 = .025 or 2.5% of population NZDF rate is 100/10000 = .01 or 1% of population The real story then, is that the NZDF rate of alcohol offending is less than half that of the general NZ populace. This is despite the low price of alcohol in their bars, the stressors of the job, & the "perfect recipe" for alcohol offending according to the experts. Congrats to the NZDF. Experts & TV3, give yourselves an uppercut.

07 Nov 2011 07:30p.m.

hamuera Kohu wrote:

100 adults of 10000 every year is a very good statistic which obviously shows that the benefit of a military education. Propaganda and/or mis-information is a powerful tool and relies on perversion of perspective. Many of the goodfolk in this forum have figured out that the media are sensationalising the issue. The key to alcohol abuse is to get rid of alcohol....for every one. Limit every NZer to two cans per man per day perhaps. Let us then see where the problems lay. Personally, I like Dilmah but I think old enough to die for your country's freedom means old enough to enjoy the fruits of freedom and drink.