I dont know how they can quote a 1% failure rate. Where was this from? (The selection rates were about 1%) The failure rates up to about CP59 were averaging one per CP. One CP i know of lost 3!!. So the average is at least 10%.
My point is: there has been none chopped since cp59 when the financial purse strings were tightened... The NZ division was just about closed because they were not making money. Now they have to at all costs. Chopping cadets means loosing income.
And yes the selection process is a little less involved now. It costs money to have long selection processes.