Defence Minister Chris Penk says trade-offs are made while developing training systems. Photo \/ Annaleise Shortland<\/p>\n
The deteriorating condition of New Zealand\u2019s defence infrastructure has been highlighted through various reports in recent years. They\u2019ve shown NZDF outputs have been \u201ccompromised to the point of failure\u201d by inadequate or poorly performing infrastructure.<\/p>\n
In May, Cabinet approved a business case for investment in modernising recruit training infrastructure. That was followed by $22.9 million in capital funding and $2.576m in operating funding in Budget 2026 for the design stage of the programme. <\/p>\n
A just-released Cabinet paper from Penk\u2019s office says much of the training infrastructure is World War II era, \u201cincreasingly ineffective and creating a potential for unsafe training environments\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe infrastructure to support training of recruits, in particular, is not in a position to meet existing or future demand in an effective way, and investment is needed to avoid future failure,\u201d the paper says. <\/p>\n
The land training system, which consists of 88 different components, ranging from classrooms to rifle ranges to training areas, \u201cis under pressure as a result of ageing assets, long term underinvestment and an inability to keep pace with modern technology and training methods\u201d. <\/p>\n
It outlines four different problems facing the training system; it\u2019s been used for 30 years and \u201cis not capable of ensuring success for the next 30 years\u201d, \u201cpoor infrastructure in failing conditions makes it difficult to train and retain people\u201d, and \u201crigidity\u201d in the system \u201climits the adaptivity\u201d needed to respond and prepare. A fourth problem was redacted. <\/p>\n
Recruit training is one of four sub-systems of the overall training programme and is centred at the Wai\u014duru Military Camp and Training Area.<\/p>\n
According to the paper, it is \u201cexperiencing a range of significant challenges\u201d. One example in the document is that \u201canalogue manually operated ranges [are] inefficient and unsuitable for modern weapons and training\u201d. <\/p>\n
An annex attached to the Cabinet document says about 60% of the land training system infrastructure is at the end of its life and by 2035 that would rise to 80%. <\/p>\n
Former Defence Minister Judith Collins (centre) joins Army chiefs last year to inspect the Graduation Parade for Recruit Regular Force 416, Rafah Company, at Wai\u014duru Military Camp, the main centre for recruit training. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
A business case was completed with several options presented for investment. Most of the analysis of these options was redacted in the document. <\/p>\n
The option that Penk recommended is described as a \u201cLand Training System that equips the NZ Army to integrate with Australia and other partners, and operate jointly with other Government services\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen viewed through a primary lens of affordability, timeliness and achievability, [this option] focusing on recruit training only, is considered to be the minimum viable capability needed in the short term,\u201d the paper says. <\/p>\n
He recommended a detailed business case and told Cabinet he was seeking funding for a design phase. That money was ultimately confirmed in the Budget.<\/p>\n
This design phase would include reviewing and redesigning the system and curriculum, making a series of \u201ctargeted facility upgrades to add resilience to a significantly degraded capability\u201d that would be of value regardless of future decisions, and developing the detailed business case. <\/p>\n
That business case would include more information on a range of possible investments. The paper highlights the major components of recruit training at Wai\u014duru include the headquarters, instruction facilities, and weapon training simulation and ranges.<\/p>\n
A timeline for the programme shows the \u201cdesign phase\u201d as occurring between the third quarter of 2026 and quarter two of 2029. The dates for the delivery phase and closure phase were redacted in the document.<\/p>\n
Penk told the Herald recruit training was \u201can important element of having the right people\u201d and recruitment would be an \u201cimportant factor for the long-term future of the force\u201d. <\/p>\n
He said the issue was \u201cunderinvestment and the situation we\u2019ve inherited has been suboptimal across the board\u201d. He pointed to the state of training facilities and defence housing. <\/p>\n
Asked whether enough urgency was being given to the issue, given the timeline of the design phase reaching out to 2029, Penk said the Government was trying to \u201csequence a whole heap of infrastructure\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to sequence it all so that we can physically get it done. Of course, if it\u2019s possible to do more quickly, then we will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asked if that was a risk, Penk said it was a \u201crisk that always exists if you don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3225,8227,17094,4190,29242,25091,27507,42343,3273,266,78,1702,1426,9862,23362,117,111,16652,43,139,5006,69,45644,8998,1115,13181,312,1361,61,8812,14047,80,2963],"class_list":["post-551648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-according","tag-army","tag-avoid","tag-demand","tag-effective","tag-effectively","tag-existing","tag-failure","tag-future","tag-government","tag-in","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-meet","tag-needed","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newly","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-not","tag-nz","tag-paper","tag-position","tag-recruit","tag-released","tag-says","tag-that","tag-to","tag-training","tag-way","tag-zealand","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551648","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=551648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}