Labour is saying a damning Auditor General's report on a Defence Force contracting fiasco, as a classic 'job for the boys' situation.

The office of the Auditor General has come down hard on the Defence Force after a contract was handed out to a man who was working for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.

It found a the contract to maintain lifejackets was picked up by a non-commissioned member of the organisation and the contract failed to comply with the Defence Force's conflict's of interest policy.

Labour's Defence spokesperson Phil Goff said while Jonathan Coleman held the portfolio at the time, Gerry Brownlee needs do deliver some answers.

"As to why it took 20 months to sort something out that could have been done in five minutes."

Mr Goff said he knew about this two years ago and is astounded it took this long.

He said this deal fails on a number of levels.

"If you can work for an organisation and then win contracts from it without transparency around that, that's clearly wrong."