UFO spotters and alien abductees have less help now that the New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) has bailed on UFO investigations. Some classified UFO files now coming to light have revealed that the NZDF has its share of skeptics, including former Defense Chief Governor-General Jerry Mateparae. In a bluntly worded statement, Mateparae suggested that all UFO phenomenon have reasonable explanations and that the Defense Force can no longer afford the time and resources spend on researching them. This news obviously didn’t settle well in the UFO community.
Document dump
The New Zealand government let it all hang out with the release of decades’ worth of documents about the nation’s UFO investigations. The records show the typical wingless objects disseminating presumed magnetic media, requests from concerned citizens for information and UFO groups concerned about increased unexplained activity in the New Zealand skies.
One incident related by TVNZ involved Suzanne Hansen, director of a UFO group called UFOCUS. She was reporting numerous sightings from concerned citizens that she seemed to feel were of grave concern to the nation. When she relayed her evidence to Mateparae, he sat on the information for a year before replying back to her that all the information from the NZDF pertaining to UFOs would soon be declassified. That was in 2009.
The notice form Mateparae was apparently not unique, however, because the Defense Force was notifying all agencies and organizations that deal with supernatural occurrences that all the government’s documents would soon be made public.
General skepticism
Although the NZDF was able to keep most of its skepticism to itself, the letter from Mateparae suggested that the release of the documents could be embarrassing, presumably to UFO advocates. However the disdain the Governor-General has for the supernatural appeared evident in his references to “little green men” and to flying saucers.
An official document, a staff guide dating from 2008, says that the military does not have the qualifications to analyze the extraterrestrial and that it does not have the necessary expertise to identify objects that are from other universes.
However Mateparae seemed quite confident that if enough manpower and resources would be devoted to UFO and alien sightings, the result of such investigations would be “rational.”
According to the staff guide quoted, Mateparae believed that UFO sightings and associated reports should be filed with the police rather than the NZDF.
Hansen apparently never got to share her concerns about UFO phenomenon prior to the recent release of the documents.
