OIA REQUEST – ROUTINE QUALIFYING SERVICE

The RNZNCA subcommittee has raised an Official Information Act [OIA] request to the Minister of Defence [MOD] around the term Routine Qualifying Service [RQS] and Risk Analysis [RA] on the items listed below.

The following information under the Official Information Act (OIA) 1982 has been requested:
• What are or were the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) criteria used to define Routine Qualifying Service (RQS) and Risk Analysis (RA) prior to
1974?
• What NZDF deployments prior to 1974 met the RQS and RA criteria?
• When was the decision-making process using those criteria completed and by whom?
• Where and by which department or agency is the relevant assessment or report held?
• When (using the RA criteria) did the NZDF carry out its assessment of deployments to the Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom (ANZUK) Force
and Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR)?
• When was that assessment completed and where, and by which department or agency is the relevant documentation held?
• If the relevant assessment, report or other documentation is held by a department or agency for which you are responsible, a copy is requested.

The OIA request was forwarded to MOD on 15 April 2021 and acknowledged by the Minister’s Office the same day.
On Monday 19 April 2021, MOD advised the RNZNCA that its OIA Request has been transferred to NZDF for action. The subcommittee is extremely disappointed that MOD took this action. Reason. If the subcommittee had wanted NZDF to reply we would have written to CDF direct. The question remains – who actually determines NZDF policy?

We have been continuously and constantly advised that all service prior to 1974 is RQS. What the association wants to know is how the NZDF determined RQS and what RA was carried out to support it. All OIA submissions must be answered within 20 working days. Watch this space.