John Battersby: Senior Fellow at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies on the naval officers being charged for the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui

The commander of naval vessel HMNZS Manawanui is facing a court martial —alongside two other officers— over its sinking off Samoa's coast in 2024. 

Charges laid under the Armed Forces Discipline Act allege errors on the bridge meant the vessel grounded on a known navigational hazard. 

Commander Yvonne Gray, Lieutenant Commander Matthew Gajzago, and a third unnamed officer are facing charges. 

John Battersby, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies, told Ryan Bridge that as a commander of a naval vessel, your one job is to keep it above water.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Captain of the money Minui, commander of Von Gray is

(00:02):
among three Navy officers being charged over at sinking in
Sami last year. You remember that they all face court
martial proceedings alleged of negligently causing a ship to be lost.
John Battersby is senior fellow, Massive University Center for Defense
and Security Studies. John. Good morning, John. Are they are they?
What's the story here? Are they out for blood or
is this just process or what?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I would definitely say it's process, and it's inevitable whenever
a major air set light. This is lost in peace time,
of course, is going to be an inquiry is huge
public interest, major public Yes, there has to be an
inquiry that exhaustively looks at all the circumstances. And as
a commander of a naval pistol, your one job is

(00:45):
to keep that above order. So no, they're not out
for that. This is the accountability process that is perfectly
normal in a circumstance.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Does it mean that they've looked at other factors and
determined it must have been human era?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Though? I think they've looked at all possible factors, and
I think that when the Naval report that came out
did highlight a number of contributed factors or associated factors.
So no, it doesn't, it doesn't rule those out. But
what it does do is the human element of this
needs to be explored, and that is what this inquiry

(01:21):
will do.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Okay, what is that negligence? What's the punishment? Well, what
could be a punishment or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh, there could be a range of punishments, and it
would be probably unwise to be too too speakative about that.
The losing a ship in peace time, that's a that's
a serious matter. So I can't imagine there'll be a trifle.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Hey, your thoughts John, on what's going on in the
Middle East? You must be interested in that.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh, when your reporter rang me last night, he said,
we're not going to ask you about that, So be
prepared for everything. Yeah, look there, there's Look, there's are
so much happening over there at the moment. I would
say historically, whenever the Americans have got involved in Iran,
there's been a short term tactical success and much small, severe,

(02:09):
longer term, much less successful outcomes. See the fifty three
overturning of a democratic elected president there led to a
period of very very poor government that was not in
the advantages of the Iranian people and inevitably lead to
the two and seventy nine which has put the current
regime in there. So look from a historical perspective, not

(02:32):
looking terribly enthusiastically at what's happened over there, although you
know that raging is horrific. So while I won't publicly
celebrate the death of any human individual, the overturning of
the raging, but that is going to happen. As long
as it leads to a better one could be a
good outcome. But again, we seem to be hoping a lot,

(02:53):
and there doesn't seem to be a clear objective in
what the Americans are doing, not a clear cut one.
There's no obvious successor we could go back to what
was there before.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, one hundred percent, John, thanks very much your time
this morning, John Battersbey, Massaw University Center for Defense and
Security Studies. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talks at b from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.