ZK-NSN
The problem with your squishy green theory is that these RNZAF guys probably don't have 150 hours on the mighty King Air either. Even if they do, they have a grand total of zero hours commercial flying experience, and relatively little total time.
Now if it was me, I'd be taking the guy with 1000 hours in a Chieftain over the military guy every day and twice on Sundays.
The whole shebang doesn't sit well with the Air Nelson desire to protect local GA guys against the evil horde of returning Kiwis. You'd think that they would also want to protect the local GA guys from the Air Force plebs who haven't paid a bean for their training, who have in fact had their training courtesy of the tax dollars raised from those self-same GA pilots.
Who cares if the pilots or ALPA are "watching it closely..." they have allowed it to go ahead, there is stuff-all they can do about it now.
Anyway, looking for consistency with Air Nelson is silly. As others have said, it's all about money...