The Defence Minister is describing an ex-soldier's 30-year-old training injury as "totally avoidable and unnecessary".
George Nepata was rendered a tetraplegic after he was severely injured in April 1989 as a junior soldier.
The Minister, Ron Mark, says the New Zealand Defence Force did not provide Mr Nepata with a safe system of work during that training exercise and has formally apologised for that failure and made an ex-gratia payment to him.
