Mouldy military housing needs fixing, but money to do so is short, the government says.
A campaign begun by a woman who lives at Waiouru army base has been gathering families' stories of living in health-eroding conditions, under the banner of Mission Homefront.
Associate Defence Minister Chris Penk has seen photos taken inside mouldy homes, and stated "no family should have to live like that" - but added the New Zealand Defence Force had assured him it responded quickly to any problems.
Campaigner Erin Speedy disputed that.
"We sent the advice Minister Penk has received from the NZDF to those who have made submissions, and some of the words they used in response were 'upsetting', 'rubbish" and 'offensive'," she told RNZ.
"None of the people who responded agreed that the NZDF is moving personnel into temporary accommodation when mould issues are repeatedly reported, nor is it doing everything possible to quickly resolve maintenance issues."
Penk had been in touch with Speedy, and she said she appreciated that a lot, but said with three-quarters of families who had contacted her saying they had black mould, damp and draughts in their homes, more had to be done quickly.
Penk told RNZ the government was exploring options.
Housing conditions for NZ defence staff horrific: campaigner duration 3′ :58″
However, "we are operating in a fiscally constrained environment and the level of investment required is significant", he added.
A pilot programme to upgrade homes at Linton alone was costing $75m.
In 2022-23, Defence's overall housing regeneration programme failed to spend $34m assigned to it due to "resource shortages" that prevented projects shifting from design into a construction phase, Defence's last annual report said.
"There are health and safety liability risks from degraded infrastructure and the need for multi-year funding," it said.
RNZ asked Penk for an update on Treasury's advice about the financial implications of fixing the houses, but he referred that to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who turned RNZ's request into an Official Information Act request that takes weeks to answer.
Penk said he had met with the Defence Force and it had assured him "that as soon as problems are raised NZDF moves quickly to address them".
"For example, they advised that if they were alerted to black mould on the walls of a Defence house, they would move the occupants into temporary accommodation."
Speedy disputed that. In an email to several ministers on Thursday, she called for better processes to be immediately stood up in place of failing complaint systems, and asked who was the best person at Defence to work with on that.
"I doubt the government, the ministers and those sitting in Defence House are truly aware of the extent of the comprehensive and systemic issues their personnel are battling on the homefront," she told RNZ.
Meanwhile, documents show officials have been advising successive governments about how public-private partnerships, or PPPs, could be used to fix Defence housing, going back to 2019 at least.
RNZ has been promised further information on this by 30 August.
