Captain's gender had nothing to do with sinking of New Zealand naval ship, says defence minister

By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's Defence Minister on Thursday publicly criticised online trolling of the female captain of a naval vessel that sunk at the weekend, saying while the cause of the incident was unknown, it had nothing to do with the captain’s gender.

The Manawanui, the navy's specialist dive and hydrographic vessel, sank on Sunday on a reef off the coast of Samoa that it was surveying. Its 75 crew and passengers were ordered to abandon the vessel in life rafts and were later rescued.

"A court of inquiry has been stood up to establish what caused this terrible incident. The one thing that we already know did not cause it is the gender of the ship's captain," said Judith Collins, who is New Zealand’s first female defence minister.

She said she was appalled to see the comments online from "armchair admirals, people who will never have to make decisions which mean life or death for their subordinates."

"I thought seriously in 2024 what the hell is going on here with people who are sitting there in their armchair operating a keyboard making comments about people that they do not know, about an area they do not know and they are just vile. Where's a bit of decency," she said.

She added women in uniform were being abused in the street following the incident.

"This is outrageous behaviour and New Zealand is not known for this and we are better than it," she added.

New Zealand has long been known for its progressive stance on gender equality with the country's female population the first in the world to gain suffrage. But women in authority, including former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, have often come in for much worse treatment than their male counterparts by members of the public - a topic that has been hotly debated in parliament and local media.

Around 20% of New Zealand's uniformed defence force personnel are women. The country's Navy has just five vessels in service after the sinking of the Manawanui.

The Defence Force said an interim report will be made by mid-November and the final report will be released to the public.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)