VETERANS ADVISORY BOARD

You will be aware from a previous post the composition of the Veterans Advisory Board which was established in August by the Minister of Defence.  This Board has been tasked with determining what is most probably the most fundamental question which will effect all Serving and ex Serving members of the New Zealand Defence Force.

WHAT IS A VETERAN?

The Board has been established under the Veterans Support Act 2014, Part 8 article 248 and comprises of:

Six Army Personnel, five of which are non serving,  two serving Airforce personnel and one Member of Parliament (Retired)  a further serving Airforce representative has been named to stand in for any serving personnel who are unable to attend.

What is missing here?  There is no Navy representative on this Board!   Now if you don’t care or have no opinion on the composition of this Board, then please read no further.  However, if you believe that there should be a Navy representative from either serving or non-serving on this board to provide a truely cross section of experience, then read on.

A templated letter has been attached to this post and can be downloaded HERE.  The letter is addressed to the Minister of Defence with a copy to your local Member of Parliament.  The letter should be sent in its entirety, dated, your address and signature details appended.  The letter should then be emailed to the Minister with a hard copy posted by snail mail.  No stamps are required for this correspondence as they can be sent FREEPOST.

The Hon Ron Mark email address is r.mark@ministers.govt.nz  your local MP’s email address can be found by clicking HERE.

Please, if you want your voice heard than ‘Communicate’ sadly this is not something we do or our Government does very well.