Veterans Affairs committee  It's been decided that in the decades prior to this, people weren't given the best information they could have been. The whole thrust of our reorganization is to improve the quality of information people are given and to have a seamless transition for people from being service pe

Veterans Affairs committee  I'll just say in closing that I'll have a rain check on the beer. I'll come and collect it as soon as I can. Thank you.

Veterans Affairs committee  We pay the basic airfare. We pay nothing else. We just pay the basic airfare. We've sent 140 to Malaya, and it was a trip the group organized to get themselves there for Hari Merdeka, which is the day of recognition of independence. It was the 50th anniversary of Merdeka. There w

Veterans Affairs committee  We don't have a problem as such. The Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association is recognized by all as the umbrella organization, the pre-eminent organization representing veterans. It is the largest by far. There are other groups, and I and the RSA president meet with

Veterans Affairs committee  We have troops on the ground in Afghanistan. We don't have any in Iraq. We sent a group of engineers there for a period of time under a UN mandate. We have troops on active duty in East Timor. We have troops in the Solomon Islands. And I think there are about another ten or a doz

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we do. I am very gratified, having been to two ministerial summits, by how good they are. I have found them to be very worthwhile. We turn up as a group to discuss issues that are tough to discuss with anybody else. I think Veterans' Affairs is quite a unique portfolio for

Veterans Affairs committee  The most significant thing we did in recent years was bring an unknown warrior back from the Western Front. We now have a tomb of the unknown warrior. It was something that people had raised before and discussed, but it never happened. We did it, and in doing so we made one mista

Veterans Affairs committee  I agree with that. I'll just say on the information systems, which Fiona has alluded to, that they are all paper-based systems. There can be veterans walking down the street who walk into an office and say, “I'm a veteran”, and nobody in the office will have a list of them. You h

Veterans Affairs committee  Thank you. On the information, I'll ask Fiona to respond. That was question one. And I'll ask Fiona to respond to your second question about forms. I will say that I find that our system is quite a bit different from other systems. With most of the systems I've seen, whether it

Veterans Affairs committee  There are two points to your question. New Zealand is in the process of making a transition. Up to the previous president of the RSA, all prior presidents were Second World War veterans. The last two were Vietnam War veterans. Even they say we need to be looking to the next gener

Veterans Affairs committee  You talked about lowering the bar, and I'll give you a very good reason why you should have a lower bar for those who have served than for those who haven't. The perfect example for me is the Gulf War and what people identify as the Gulf War syndrome. The Americans have spent m

Veterans Affairs committee  Fiona.

Veterans Affairs committee  Perhaps I could just finish up on that and not cut into your time. I am from the Conservative Party. I've met Greg Thompson on several occasions. Just send him my personal warm regards, please, when you see him next. The last thing I'll say to you is about the things I do as a p

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, we do. The principal organization is the the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association. It covers the army, navy, and the air force. Within that you will find there are other groups. There will be groups organized around our deployment in Malaya, a group organized