Time to Cancel New Weapons Spending – Auckland Peace Action
“Revelations by Minister of Finance Grant Robertson that the previous National government made no provision for the $20 billion worth of new weapons for the military provides a great opportunity to step back from this absurd spend up,” said Auckland Peace Action member Valerie Morse.
“The Labour-led government has already mentioned re-allocating this weapons money for other projects several times. We encourage the new government to abandon this war funding and instead invest in some genuine peace making, like building homes, schools and hospitals.”
“It was clear from the release of the Defence White Paper in 2016 that there were no hard numbers put next to any of the big ticket items. It was a NZDF wish list that largely spelled out the new weapons systems needed for fighting wars along with the United States. It includes the purchase of two new warships, despite a current $500 million project to upgrade the existing ships Te Mana and Te Kaha.”
“The $20 billion has to be seen for what it is: a gold mine for international weapons dealers and a show of obedience to the demands of the US military. These weapons companies profit from human misery and destruction by manufacturing better ways to kill and maim. We can truly say that the sooner this spending is abandoned, the better off humanity will be.”
Well of course I for one disagree. People often curse defence spending in peaceful times. But when it’s needed a professional defence force isn’t easy to come by.
For NZDF to dominate technologically and logistically the target must remain at $20bln CAPEX in order to return combat capabilities to RNZAF and maintain expeditionary forces in a balanced and fiscal manner across NZDF while maintaining interoperability with Australia. And I’m quoting both Labour and NZFirst defence policy here (they’re on there respective websites).
What’s available to purchase on the open market is fairly understood by DT members.
And until we hear otherwise I think it’s safe to assume the key focuses will be veterans affairs, cyber security and peacekeeping. Also multiple commitments to the 2016 DWP have been made. What’s up for debate is the $20bln CAPEX and let’s not forget it’s just a number to borrow against. The government isn’t going to make huge structural changes to the tax system, what’s been talked about most is reducing net core crown debt through less borrowing and the introduction of infrastructure bonds.
I mean I’m pretty optimistic That we New Zealanders can make the target. Whether this triggers more trade and investment I don’t know. But we won’t be able to grow with out hitting the target. And for good reasons. One reason is domestic logistics capability is stretched. The recent rain event in Roxbugh shows the towns creeks were unable to deal with the event needing some 2000 truck loads of wast to be removed. Up until now New Zealand’s infrastructure has been able to cope with events how ever questions remains.
Now we just can’t continue operating in this kind of haphazard way and should stack capabilities on top capabilities that are fit for purpose. I’m not suggesting NZDF become a trucking company either. I’m suggesting events are exposing weakness in the economy. NASA scientists claim there’s more precipitation in the atmosphere than was predicated and we can quote one of there discussion papers.
“The magnitude of the intensification of extreme precipitation in climatologically heavily precipitating regions might likely be on the higher end of current model prediction.”- https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15771
So there’s more rain in the atmosphere now questions remain of New Zealand’s infrastructure being up for it. Again this is just one example.
In order to achieve the next level up of economic performance it’s my opinion the target should remain at $20bln CAPEX.