{"id":295125,"date":"2026-02-21T11:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295125\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T11:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T11:47:28","slug":"army-pauses-cultural-skills-framework-after-concern-raised-with-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/295125\/","title":{"rendered":"Army pauses cultural skills framework after concern raised with Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have today sought further information from Army leadership. I am advised that the implementation of this Framework has been paused to enable broader consultation. The Army leadership agrees that this policy needs further consideration.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"AA copy of the Army Cultural Skills Framework shared with Newstalk ZB. Photo\/ Supplied<\/p>\n

Stephenson said he was pleased the framework had been paused. <\/p>\n

\u201cA number of people came to Act and said \u2018This has been rolled out and can you look into it?\u2019,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think this Government\u2019s been pretty clear that we actually want the Public Service, including the Defence Force, to focus on their core roles and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, that would be making sure the army is a world-class and combat-ready force, that\u2019s modern, agile and highly adaptive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"ActAct MP Todd Stephenson wrote to Defence Minister Judith Collins with concerns. Photo \/ Supplied <\/p>\n

When asked whether the pause was initiated by her, Collins said: \u201cNo, I understand that the Army decided to pause after I contacted them and said I had not heard about this new framework from them.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement, an NZDF spokesperson said: \u201cThe Army\u2019s cultural skills framework was paused on Wednesday by the Chief of Army to enable broader consultation, after the Minister of Defence became aware of it. The Army agrees the framework needs further consideration.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DefenceDefence Minister Judith Collins wasn’t happy with some of the language in the cultural skills framework. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

When asked what she thought about the framework Stephenson had sent her, Collins said it was unclear, and she certainly wasn\u2019t happy with some of the language used. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was certainly written in a must-do rather than an optional or it would be good to. And I think they\u2019ve got to go back to think about it a bit more. But their main job is to be a fighting fit army. I want them focused on being a fighting fit army,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Troy Matich is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, working from Parliament\u2019s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2025, previously working for RNZ as a producer for Morning Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have today sought further information from Army leadership. I am advised that the implementation of this Framework…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,74,8227,1558,2516,10709,24181,1403,143466,42,2862,98898,137334,6036,26477,6722,43,43667,147540,2341,6046,2081,82743,16708,40,38,41,39,94437,3608,102],"class_list":["post-295125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-after","tag-army","tag-been","tag-concern","tag-concerns","tag-cultural","tag-defence","tag-framework","tag-headlines","tag-heart","tag-implementation","tag-karakia","tag-know","tag-leaders","tag-minister","tag-news","tag-paused","tag-pauses","tag-personnel","tag-potential","tag-raised","tag-requirements","tag-skills","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-waiata","tag-were","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}