Wayne Mapp: Defence Minister on the Government's $12b commitment to defence

The Government will spend $12 billion on defence spending.

Two billion of that will be allocated to helicopters and deployment.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp talks to Mike Hosking about the budget.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some more detail on the new defense spend. It's twelve
billion all up, nine of which is new money yesterday.
Two billion of that is going to be spent on
choppers and deployment. When former Defense minister with us, very
good morning to you, good wanting Marnier's side this smart spending.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh yes, it is the existing helicopters. About fifteen years ago.
They were bought real cheap from the Australians. I managed that,
and frankly they've done well to do fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Do explain unless I got the misreportage. Two billion dollars
for five choppers sounds like a lot per chopper.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yes, that would be, and I think it might be
a bit less than two billion. The Minister Collins is
quite clear about five helicopters. Well, that would be less
than two billion, even taking into account spare simulators, et cetera.
The Spanish bought eight of these helicopters. They'll almost certainly
be American Seahawks, that make sense. The Assie said the

(00:54):
same thing for nine hundred and fifty million in US
and that'll be a complete package, so we might is
seeming significantly less than two.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Billion, Okay. The deployment part in the role of the military.
Is this moving in the right direction.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, it is. I mean we've struggled to get proper deployments,
particularly the Navy, although they're doing more of that now.
And part of that is, of course making sure recruitment
retention is up. We've had problems around that as well.
So the government is making the essential steps. You know. Frankly,
the Defense Force has been running down for a little

(01:29):
bit in terms of recruitment and retention essentially, so that's
having to be bolstered up, and that's a fair chunk
of the twelve billion.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Does retention solve itself? If you're joining somewhere that's got
new kit, does that make you want to join more?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yes? It does. I know that from my own experience.
You know, you sort of if you go a young person,
you go in the military and everything's like sixty years old,
you think, yeah, right, we look second rate here. If
everything's kind of new, you're thinking nearwhere right in the game?

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Fantastic? That gor right one. Appreciate the update.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
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