On 7 October 2020, the Minister of Defence announced the establishment of an Expert Review Group (ERG) to review a number of aspects of the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) structure, information management and record-keeping processes, arising from the first recommendation from the Operation Burnham Inquiry Report.
The Minister of Defence’s media statement is available from the Beehive website: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/appointments-made-defence-expert-review-group.
The ERG will assess whether the NZDF's organisational structure and record-keeping and retrieval processes are in accordance with international best practice, and whether they are sufficient to remove or reduce the possibility of organisational and administrative failings of the type identified in the Inquiry Report occurring in the future.
The ERG comprises:
- Lyn Provost (Chair), former Controller and Auditor-General, Deputy Chief Executive of the New Zealand Police, and Acting Chief Executive of Archives New Zealand
- Simon Murdoch, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade and former Chief Executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
- Tony Lynch, Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and former Deputy Secretary of Defence
- Richard Foy, senior Department of Internal Affairs official
- Carol Douglass, Deputy Secretary Governance, People and Executive Services, Ministry of Defence
- Brigadier Hugh McAslan, NZDF senior military officer.