Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 17 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13381. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]12.Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill) to theMinister of Defence: Does he accept all of the conclusions of the New Zealand Defence Force External Safety Management Review; if not why not?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence): Yes. The independent review panel makes a number of observations throughout the report and there are 20 detailed recommendations. The New Zealand Defence Force has accepted and welcomed these recommendations.Hon Phil Goff: When this report says that the Government has failed for more than 2 years to implement any of the key recommendations of the previous 2011Cosman review on safety in the Defence Force does he as Minister accept responsibility for that or is it his intention—unannounced as yet—to sack the Chief of the Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones and make him the scapegoat for the Government’s failures in defence?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No. The report does not actually say that. The previous review was in the process of being implemented but it actually covers a narrower set of circumstances than this current review. I would also point out that when that man Phil Goff was the Minister of Defence he did nothing to address defence safety and indeed the accident rate was the same under Labour’s tenure.Hon Phil Goff: Given the Minister’s denial that this report says that I seek leave of the House to table the report to show that I am right and that the Minister is wrong.Mr SPEAKER: Is it a report that is freely available to members?Hon Phil Goff: It is on the net but it is not widely available.Mr SPEAKER: If it is on the net then they can go and search for it if they want to.Hon Phil Goff: Why did the Minister repeatedly deny in Parliament that cost cutting restructuring high attrition and low morale had anything to do with the accident rate in the Defence Force when this report points out very clearly that all of those factors do have an impact and have had an impact on having more accidents in the Defence Force than we needed or that we should have had?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Actually the report says nothing of the sort. The fact is that Vote Defence was the same this year as the year before and there has not been a cut in the vote.Hon Phil Goff: When the report found that up to 5 percent of all navy life jackets did not have as they should have an inflation device attached to them and that that was the key cause of the death of Private Michael Ross what does that say about the state of the Defence Force under this National Government?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well what it says is that there were issues with life jackets that the National Government has addressed but that in 9 years Labour never did anything about.Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Can you explain to me what remedy a member asking a question has and who cannot table a report when the Minister simply says things that are untrue about what is in it?Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member is now using the point of order system to again disagree with the answer he has been given. He asked what response the Government was taking and the Minister said he is taking a lot more action than the previous Government did. That is a legitimate answer.Hon Phil Goff: He said things in the report Mr Speaker that are not there.Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member wants to raise a breach of privilege he knows the procedure to do so.