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Defence Force Stitched up on Foreign-Made Uniforms

Ron Mark MP

Spokesperson for Defence
28 JANUARY 2016

Defence Force Stitched up on Foreign-Made Uniforms

An Official Information Act reply to New Zealand First reveals problems with the Army’s foreign-made uniforms that were introduced from 2013.

“We’ve had reports of patchy quality and other concerns involving the Army’s 21,000 plus sets of foreign-made multi-terrain camouflage uniform,” says New Zealand First Defence Spokesperson Ron Mark.

“While a fantastic pattern, you cannot tell us that a Kiwi company like Swazi couldn’t do a better job making them. Why is it that the Australian Defence Minister can stipulate ‘Made in Australia’ for their kit, but National refuses to do the same for ours?

“New Zealand First would rather support jobs in Levin than funnel the $13.6 million which the project cost in 2013 to an Australian firm owned by the group behind Bunnings.

“You could say ‘lowest prices aren’t necessarily the beginning’, when the Army’s multicam uniform could have been made anywhere in Asia, are of questionable quality and many people outside Defence HQ still use the old ‘DPM’ uniforms.

“The OIA highlights a number of quality issues and a ‘version 1.2’ was introduced only last year. While too late for the 21,000 plus sets procured so far, the new version also replaces that enemy of silence, velcro, with simpler and far stealthier buttons.

“As the project was meant to have the Regular Army fully equipped by November 2013 and the Reserves by October 2014, it raises big questions over final delivery for our men and women.

“We will be asking when all the related combat gear will be in place too,” says Mr Mark.

ENDS


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