RNZ Navy Archives -

By John McLean, author of “A Mission of Honour; The Royal Navy in the Pacific, 1769-1997”.

In my article of a couple of days ago on the HMNZS Manawanui disaster, entitled “Is The Navy Fit For Purpose?”, I raised the issue of the perceived over-promotion of minority groups in the services at the expense of the efficiency of our defence forces.

Speculation is rife throughout the country as in both general conversation and on social media (usually a truer reflection of opinion than the mainstream media) the suspicion is that the captain of HMNZS Manawanui, Commander Yvonne Gray, was over-promoted because she ticked the boxes of being both female and lesbian.

Instead of facing this issue and providing some facts to rebut such a presumption the Navy has compounded the problem by appointing as chair of the Inquiry into the disaster yet another person who can only too easily be perceived to be another of its over-promoted women – in this case Commodore Melissa Ross, who also ticks the boxes that seem to be more and more important in naval promotions – in her case being both female and part-Maori.

So passionate is she about the importance of promoting women in the Navy (apparently because they are women rather than on merit) that the Navy website of 6 December, 2019, stated of her: “She is passionate about the development of women in the military and was co-chair of the N.Z. Defence Force’s Women’s Development Steering Group, which she helped create”.

She gave away her prejudices in her own words: “With women in the Navy, we still have work to do to create the environment where they can thrive” (presumably at the expense of men). And yet the speaker of this sexist nonsense has been appointed by her fellow feminist, Judith Collins, to investigate the sinking of the Manawanui by another woman officer, Yvonne Gray whose ability to tick various boxes is widely believed to have been the reason for her rapid promotion to command of the $100 million vessel that, under her command, sank in Samoan waters.

How could anyone have faith in such an Inquiry, headed by one who appears to be so fanatically committed to her fellow female officers as to bring her objectivity into doubt? Commodore Ross is the very last person who should be involved in an inquiry into the sinking of the Manawanui. Much of the blame for this continuing “train crash” can be laid at the feet of Judith Collins who, as Minister of Defence, was responsible for appointing her fellow feminist, Melissa Ross, to head the inquiry.

Instead of trying to rebut the obvious presumption that Yvonne Gray might have been appointed to command due to her ability to tick certain boxes of political correctness that the Navy apparently now deems so essential to promotion, Judith Collins resorted to smear tactics, which are always easier than giving truthful answers to allegations. Those who dared to point out that the purpose of the Navy is to defend the country and that this can best be achieved by promotion on merit rather than gender/sexual orientation were damned by Collins as “misogynists” and “armchair admirals”.

The Inquiry seems to be organised so that the Navy can protect its own back as well as its policies, including – and especially – the criteria for promotion in this ever more feminine (and feminist) service. As Peter Cresswell pointed out on his Not PC Blog (pc.blogspot.com) “An inquiry by the Navy about the Navy doesn’t give confidence that we’ll ever know much more”.

The New Zealand Navy is a small affair where everybody knows everybody else and that is especially true of the coterie of powerful female officers who all seem to be of the same stripe – of advancing women (and covering up for them?) at the expense of men. Obviously Melissa Ross and Yvonne Gray know each other – probably very well. If a litigant in court is known to the judge, that is always pointed out and the judge will normally remove himself from the case. So why not follow this rule for the naval Inquiry?

For an Inquiry to be credible in should be headed by the Judge Advocate of the Armed Forces with two others: one from Britain’s Royal Navy and the other from the Royal Australian Navy. Only then could the public, whose taxes have to pay for a $130 million replacement vessel, have confidence in the outcome of the Inquiry. The choice of Melissa Ross to head it is yet another example of Judith Collins’ notoriously bad judgement. Former Defence Minister, Ron Mark, would never have made such a blunder.

Not surprisingly, the continuing absence of any meaningful information from the Navy has fuelled the rumour mill. One of these rumours is that Yvonne Gray’s “wife”, Sharon, was also on board the Manawanui when she sank. This is either true or false; it would be helpful if the Navy (or its Minister) would either confirm or deny it. As the well-paid Minister of Defence, Judith Collins has a lot of questions to answer and merely smearing those who ask them is not good enough. This thing is becoming a bigger mess by the day.

By John McLean, author of “A Mission of Honour; the Royal Navy in the Pacific, 1769-1997”

So, one of the New Zealand Navy’s five operating vessels, HMNZS Manawanui, valued at more than $100 million, went aground on a clearly charted Samoan reef in reasonable weather and visibility, then caught on fire and sank – the first of our Navy’s ships to go under since the Second World War.

The captain of the ship was a proud lesbian by name of Yvonne Gray and this raises the issue of whether the Navy is over-promoting women beyond their capacity in order to meet gender and sexual orientation goals. This would appear to be the case as the recently retired Chief of Navy, Rear-Admiral David Proctor, is on record as saying “Having wahine (women) as commanding officers on more than 60%of our ships as well as heading up shore unites and other important portfolios, is a realisation of that goal [‘to celebrate the diversity of our personnel’]”.

To have such a goal shows that Rear-Admiral Proctor did not understand the function of the service that he headed. The purpose of the Navy is to defend the nation in time of war by fighting the King’s enemies. This is best achieved by promoting people on merit and NOT having a Woke DEI goal of boosting women because they are women in order to “celebrate diversity”. When diversity prevails over merit – as appears to be the case in New Zealand’s rapidly diminishing Navy – things can only go backwards.

The sunken Manawanui was a survey/research vessel. It was doing survey work in Samoan waters when, under the control of Yvonne Gray, it went to the bottom of the ocean. Surveying has been an important function of the Royal New Zealand Navy since its creation in the Second World War and before that hydrographic surveys were carried out by the Royal Navy which defended the seas around our coasts until the 1940s. The centuries old principle of surveying is that the surveying vessel – or “mother ship” if you like – stays out at sea while the inshore surveying is done by the ship’s small boats. That way they can get in and out of shallow waters, reefs and even river mouths. They then return to the survey vessel where the charts are drawn up. So why did Commander Gray take the large and valuable ship so close to the reef?

Her defective command of the vessel risked the lives of the crew who fortunately managed to reach the shore on rafts virtually without injury. Their lives had been endangered but with their good training they got themselves off safely.

And yet the Minister of Defence, Judith Collins, called this a “triumph”!!!! And she went out of her way to praise Gray. This reaction was part of the feminist freemasonry of which Collins is a fully paid-up member. It was Collins who, as Minister of Justice, appointed the ill qualified Susan Devoy to be Race Relations Commissioner even though Devoy had no knowledge or experience of the issue and made a complete hash of it. But she had the feminist haircut and that was all that seemed to matter to Collins. Judith Collins praised Commander Gray for “saving lives” – lives that would not have to be saved if her captaincy had not put the vessel on the seabed.

Compare Collins’ effusive praise of her disastrous fellow feminist with the words that the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord George Hamilton, used in the House of Commons in 1889 when there were calls for the British government to bestow some sort of honour on Captain Kane who, with great competence, dexterity and courage, had steered HMS Calliope safely out of the hurricane in Apia harbour that had wrecked two American and three German warships. Lord George Hamilton replied that no honour would be conferred on the captain because the courage and skill displayed by him, his officers and men “was not rare in the British navy and did not deserve any special recognition”. And Captain Kane had saved his ship and not sunk it!

In a further demonstration of its political correctness (but not its effectiveness as a fighting force) the Navy went out of its way to boast about Yvonne Gray’s lesbianism at the time of her appointment to command HMNZS Manawanui. In her short biography on the Navy’s website it made mention of her “wife”, Sharon, which in the interests of good taste would have been better left unsaid. Promotion of lesbianism in any form is not a function of the Navy. By pushing it in this way the Navy left itself open to the suggestion that that might have been another box to tick for Commander Gray’s exceedingly rapid promotion up the ranks.

With great foolishness the Navy tried to make her and another female officer, Fiona Jameson, captain of the frigate HMNZS Te Kaha, poster girls for “inclusiveness”. And the result? Gray’s ship sank while Jameson crashed Te Kaha into Auckland’s Kauri Point ammunition depot, leaving a gash of more than half a metre that cost $220,000 to repair. At the time of her appointment to Te Kaha Jameson gushed, “Now as I take command with three other women [commanding officers], I get….a greater normality around wahine toa leadership”. The poor thing can’t even speak English properly let alone steer a ship without hitting a wharf.

The Navy boasts that 27.4% of its personnel are now female with 60% of our naval vessels in March, 2023, being commanded by women. Does the nation feel any safer by being told this?

So, with Gray’s Manawanui on the seabed and polluting the nearby waters and an estimated replacement cost of $130 million, and Jameson’s ship with a $220,000 gash we have to ask whether women should be allowed to command our expensive warships. As Oscar Wilde wrote in The Importance of Being Earnest, “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness”.

In the light of these disasters should women be given command of taxpayer funded naval vessels? If one applies the criteria of common sense and national security the answer is clearly “No”. Men and women are complementary to each other and not alternatives for each other. There are some tasks that women are not cut out for and are better carried out by men, e.g. commanding a warship or flying a fighter jet.

Until 1986 women were not allowed to serve on ships at sea. During the Second World War the female WRENS did a wonderful job on land dealing with signals, communications, etc. without which the Royal Navy could not have functioned. They were expert at this kind of work, which helped to win the war. Now the New Zealand Navy REQUIRES them to go to sea – something that has caused a lot of unnecessary trouble on ships as can be imagined. It seems that obliging the passing doctrine of feminism rather than having WRENS proudly effective on land is now the Navy’s priority. There is an important role for women in the Navy but it is on land and not on seagoing vessels.

Those who join the Navy deserve to be given reasonable protection from danger. How can they have any respect for or confidence in captains like Gray and Jameson? The top brass of the Navy seem obsessed with political correctness. That is not their function and it can only undermine the public’s confidence in the Senior Service. Identity politics are toxic wherever they rear their ugly heads and it is time that the Navy ceased giving the impression that the lunatics have taken over the asylum.

WHEN WILL THE NAVY EVER LEARN?

IS THE NEW ZEALAND NAVY FIT FOR PURPOSE?