The Department of Internal Affairs

Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs

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Joint Working Group on Concerns of Viet Nam Veterans website

(Decommissioned June 2012)

Background

The Joint Working Group on Concerns of Viet Nam Veterans website was created in 2005 in the Independent Agency section of the Department of Internal Affairs website (a section of the site that carried the New Zealand Government Coat of Arms instead of DIA Branding), with the URL vietnamvetswg.govt.nz.

The Joint Working Group was established to make recommendations on a package of measures to address the health and well being needs of Viet Nam Veterans and their families, following the Government’s acceptance of a Health Select Committee report in 2004 determining that New Zealand Service men and women had been exposed to a toxic environment (including Agent Orange) during their service in Viet Nam. 

The purpose of the Joint Working Group was to "Recommend to Government, for its consideration, a package of actions and procedures to address the health and well being needs of Viet Nam Veterans and their families and to develop a historical record of New Zealander's service in Viet Nam"

It comprised representatives from the Ex-Vietnam Services Association (EVSA) and the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association (RNZRSA) and officials from the Offices of the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The Joint Working Group website called for registrations of interest in 2005 and published the Group’s report, presented to the Ministers of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs at the end of April 2006. An agreement between Government and Viet Nam veterans was reached in December that year.

The website was re-skinned as part of the Department of Internal Affairs corporate website upgrade in February 2011. It was harvested in May 2012, and decommissioned in June 2012.

Go to the archived version of this website: