“Many … did not trust the complaints process or believe anything would happen if they reported the behaviour,” it said. This was similar to the situation several years ago.
However, a new complaints process was being set up with a “new approach [that] removes the obligation of regular force personnel to report to their commanding officer any incidents of sexual harm”.
Another sticking point is that NZDF leaders had only a patchy view of what was going on, while some still exhibited limited understanding of what was unacceptable.
“Leaders and personnel often called these [sexual] jokes and comments ‘banter’.”
Junior women targeted
Operation Respect was set up 10 years ago after reports of sexual assault and other harm amid a male-dominated culture in the forces. Audits will continue for 20 years.
About 40% or 5000 personnel were surveyed in 2025 for the new audit.
About 92% felt safe on the job but more than a thousand had witnessed harmful behaviour in the past year, and almost 700 or 14% reported experiencing bullying, harassment or discrimination.
Of 5000 surveyed, 60 people reported unwanted sexual activity in the past year – half of those junior-rank women – and 280 said they experienced inappropriate sexual behaviour – 100 of them junior-rank women.
“Although some groups have seen improvements, the overall prevalence of harmful behaviour in NZDF had not changed significantly,” the audit said.
Junior women and senior women officers both reported small drops in inappropriate sexual behaviour compared with 2022.
Some bad culture persisted.
“People in some NZDF work environments, and women in particular, felt that demonstrating they were ‘part of the team’ or that they were resilient meant accepting derogatory behaviour.”
Unwanted sexual activity could include touching or anything non-consensual. Inappropriate behaviour could include suggestive jokes and sharing explicit images.
Data from Military Police from 2020 to 2025 showed several offences of possessing and sending harmful sexual material images or video.
Complaints progress
The third audit says Defence has new policies, a new complaints resolution unit, and an implementation plan focused on prevention and leadership.
Principal performance auditor Richard Towers told RNZ on Wednesday the 2025 audit period coincided with an executive leadership overhaul at Defence, and a force still depleted after high attrition that began with the Covid pandemic.
“We saw that some of the work which we had expected to be completed and which we reported on in 2024 was still a work in progress,” Towers said.
“Some of that work is now either complete or near complete, so that’s good. But we definitely saw and heard from others that there had been a bit of a loss of momentum.”
The audit made a near-repeat of three years ago that many people did not report harmful behaviour and those who did were often not satisfied with the response.
“Most survey respondents … did not report it to someone in authority” – some because they felt no action was required, but a significant number “feared facing negative consequences”.
“NZDF has recognised that,” Towers said.
“The new Complaints Resolution Unit is one way that they can help start building trust with their workforce.”
At the time of the audit Defence was introducing policies to give people more control over how it handles their disclosures.
The new complaints unit would be an organisation-wide entry point and “an avenue for raising complaints outside of their immediate chain of command”.
It was too early to say how that was going but the NZDF had said it would review it in 12 months, Towers said.
NZDF last year replaced six sexual assault prevention and response advisers with nine specialist social workers and training staff, in a move to increase resources and add breadth to expertise.
Limited view
Some old-school culture persisted.
“Leaders and personnel still showed limited understanding of inappropriate sexual behaviour and bullying, harassment, and discrimination through the wide variation of what they described as acceptable behaviour,” the audit said.
“‘Acceptable behaviour’ included sexual jokes, comments about someone’s gender or sexuality, and racist comments.”
Some personnel said they did not believe their team leader would intervene if someone was making dirty jokes.
“In addition, many leaders we spoke with were unclear about what they should be doing to effectively respond to harmful behaviour.
“They did not feel they had clear guidance on what the appropriate repercussions … should be.”
The Army demonstrated to the auditors the clearest signs it was dealing with these attitudes, Towers said.
“We saw some really good things in Army and Air Force and Navy as well, and those leaders that we spoke to were really committed to the work.
“It was just as you go through the different levels of command, we didn’t get that as strong a sense of that leadership from the top … Army, we had a different story there, it was clear to everybody.”
Slow and inconsistent
Defence had acted on most of the recommendations from the 2024 audit, which followed the first by the Auditor-General in 2023, but was too slow and inconsistent.
“Some work … like the implementation plan and new policies, had taken longer to complete than expected,” Taylor said.
It still had holes in key data.
A lack of overall oversight had persisted since the 2023 audit. “NZDF needed to devote more time to governing” the operation, today’s report said.
It added the health and safety committee the operation reported to was not thinking enough about whether it was working to cut harmful behaviour.
Recent changes in NZDF structure could get leaders more engaged, it said.
The report makes six recommendations including for more oversight and training.
Data gaps
Leaders had only a patchy view of what was going on.
They lacked “robust, regular and systematic” information and analysis of what was driving harmful behaviour, who was impacted and the risks.
Towers said there was data but it was scattered between, say the health and justice parts of Defence, and needed to be joined up.
Defence responds
The NZDF declined to be interviewed.
In a statement, its chief people officer Jacinda Funnell said Defence acknowledged eliminating harmful behaviour required sustained effort and long-term culture change.
It approved a new three-year plan this year as part of a professional conduct system aimed at improved prevention, leadership and reporting paths.
Law changes were expected to improve the military justice system, alongside a new NZDF prosecution policy.
It was testing “bystander intervention training” and reworking its anti-harassment “capability”, Funnell said.
It has a “Keep it in the Green campaign” to intervene on worrying behaviour early on.
In addition, its estate rejuvenation has included work on making barracks safer for women.