Auditor-General finds Defence Force losing ground on harmful behaviour programme
The Auditor-General has released its third report into Operation Respect, finding the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has lost momentum in its efforts to protect personnel from sexual and other harmful behaviour.
Auditor-General Grant Taylor released the findings on Wednesday. The report, titled "New Zealand Defence Force: Resetting efforts to reduce harmful behaviour," is the third in a series of audits that will run for 20 years. Operation Respect was set up a decade ago in response to reports of sexual assault and other harm in a male-dominated military culture.
About 5000 personnel — roughly 40 percent of the NZDF workforce — were surveyed for the 2025 audit. Of those, 860 people (17 percent) said they had experienced some form of harmful behaviour in the past year. Almost 700 personnel (14 percent) reported bullying, harassment or discrimination. More than a thousand had witnessed harmful behaviour over the same period. Of the 5000 surveyed, 60 people reported unwanted sexual activity, half of them junior-rank women. A further 280 said they had experienced inappropriate sexual behaviour, 100 of them junior-rank women.
Despite those figures, about 92 percent of surveyed personnel said they felt safe on the job. Junior and senior women officers both reported small drops in inappropriate sexual behaviour compared with 2022.
The audit found that harmful behaviour continues to affect women at a higher rate, especially junior regular force and civilian women. In some NZDF work environments, women felt that showing they were "part of the team" or resilient meant putting up with derogatory behaviour. Leaders had only a patchy picture of what was going on, and some showed limited understanding of what was unacceptable — sexual jokes and comments were often dismissed as "banter."
The findings on under-reporting and distrust of complaints processes echo the previous audit from three years ago. Most survey respondents did not report harmful behaviour to someone in authority. Some felt no action was needed, but a significant number feared negative consequences if they spoke up. The audit found many personnel did not trust the complaints process or believe anything would come of reporting. Military Police data from 2020 to 2025 showed several offences of possessing and sending harmful sexual material, including images or video.
A new complaints process is being set up within NZDF. It removes the obligation on regular force personnel to report incidents of sexual harm to their commanding officer — a significant shift in a military context, where the chain of command normally governs how issues are raised. The audit also notes that Defence has new policies, a new complaints resolution unit, and an implementation plan focused on prevention and leadership. The Office of the Auditor-General had recommended in its 2023 report that NZDF prioritise improving its complaints and discipline systems after finding personnel did not always trust them. NZDF uniformed personnel currently have two complaints processes available, including one for bullying, harassment and discrimination; both can address non-criminal harmful sexual behaviour.
Principal performance auditor Richard Towers told RNZ that some work expected to be completed and reported on in 2024 was still in progress, pointing to a loss of momentum. He said the 2025 audit period coincided with an executive leadership overhaul at Defence and a workforce still depleted after high attrition that began during the pandemic.
The broader context here is an institution trying to reset its culture at the same time as it navigates significant leadership turnover and workforce shortages. The audit's near-repeat of 2022 findings on under-reporting and complaints distrust suggests the structural changes now under way — the new complaints resolution unit and the removal of the commanding-officer reporting obligation for sexual harm — are still too new to have changed the day-to-day experience of personnel. Senior performance auditor Marianne Bevan presented the report's findings.
The 20-year audit horizon means Parliament's watchdog will keep returning to this question regardless of leadership changes or strategy shifts in the meantime. Whether the policy framework now being built can outlast the institutional churn that has slowed it down is the question the next audit, and the one after that, will be positioned to answer.
