Last month, we saw unprecedented scenes in Napier, as NZDF LAVs were deployed to assist police in dealing with an armed gunman. I was curious about this, and so used the OIA to ask some questions. It seems I wasn't the only one, and the NZDF has gone for a public response. The bits of interest to me:
During the armed siege NZDF Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVs) were used to provide armoured protection to help recover the body of the Police Officer tragically killed earlier in the armed stand-off. NZDF has also confirmed that all Defence Force personnel were unarmed throughout the siege and the LAVs carried no ammunition.[Link added][...]
“The decision to use the LAVs was made by the Chief of Defence Force in consultation with the Minister of Defence under section 9(1) (b) of the Defence Act 1990 following a request from the Police” says Cdr Fogarty.
I'd asked for a little bit more than this, but not a lot, and the answers are generally satisfactory (though I'm now wondering whether to go after all correspondence between the Minister, NZDF and the police on the issue to see how insane the Minister and the police are). But this sort of public release is usually used to screw up requestors. And in this case, its pretty obvious who: the person who'd asked whether Jan Molenaar had bought some of his guns from the army.
