Jack Tame: The Manawanui sinking is a complete embarrassment

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Just a couple of weeks ago, I went out to Devonport for a picnic with some friends and remember pointing out the Manawanui to our kids as we crossed the harbour on the ferry.

"Look guys, that's our Navy!"

Obviously, it's a great relief that everyone is okay and was able to disembark in time, and I accept it'll be some time before we learn everything about what happened. But it's hard to look past what is - from the outside - a profoundly embarrassing accident for New Zealand's Defence Force, and our country at large.

Shit happens, but the time and place really couldn't be much worse. Just 24 hours before the ship hit the reef, Defence Ministers from across the Pacific were meeting in Auckland to establish a new Pacific Response Group, a multilateral force that will respond to future disasters.

With AUKUS and tensions over China's ambitions in the region, the Australian Defence Minister was plain when I asked him about New Zealand's military assets.

"A more capable New Zealand is very much in Australia's interests" he told me, at the end of last week.

Oof.

What's more, in just two weeks, leaders from across the Commonwealth's 56 member nations will be meeting for the bi-ennial CHOGM meeting in - you guessed it - Samoa. You hate to think what sightseeing they'll do with a couple of hours' free time.

So what now? It's absolutely critical, vitally important, that we do everything humanly possible to reduce the environmental impact of this incident. Everything. Every bit of kit we have available needs to be used. Every resource. And most importantly, there cannot be any quibbling over the cost of this response and recovery. We have to sincerely do the right thing by Samoa, and that's not going to come cheap.

As much of the World pours resources into defence assets, time and again, ours are proving unfit for purpose. Whether it's the woeful state of defence force housing, the perennially stranded 757s, or the Manawanui... The credibility of our Defence Force has taken an almighty battering in the last few years.

But as we respond to this crisis, the credibility of our nation is on the line, too. We had better step up.

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