Andrew Dickens: Defence spending is necessary, but expensive

The news that New Zealand is going to spend 12 billion dollars on defence is not news to welcome, and yet it is welcome news. 

In an unsettled world, defence is essential. And the equation for a credible defence is spending 2 percent of GDP. 

So now within 8 years we’ll get to that target - it’s a doubling.  

The question is why we are only just doing this now.

If we’d spent that for the past 30 years we would not be facing so dramatic a spend today. 

But we didn’t. Fat and complacent in a mistaken belief that we were safe and sound, and if something went wrong our friends would come and save us. 

For as long as I’ve been in the news business, Australia and the States have warned that coat tailing did not cut it and that we had to do our bit. So fair play to Judith Collins, she’s finally accepting the responsibility that we’ve always needed. 

But it comes at a difficult time. 

Firstly, the world has become more dangerous so time is of the essence. And secondly, we’re broke. 

It comes at a time when barely reported mass redundancies are happening in defence to meet government spending targets.  

And yet they’ve also announced this new plan. They fire with one hand and employ with another. 

But you can argue that both are necessary because we’ve sat on our hands for so long. And we’ve spent irresponsibly. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the news that New Zealand is going to spend
twelve billion dollars on defenses not news to welcome, and
yet it is also welcome news, and this is because
it highlights the state of the planet. It's an unsettled world,
and in an unsettled world, defense is essential and the
equation for a credible defense is spending two percent of GDP. Now,

(00:23):
within eight years we'll get to that target. It's a
doubling of the budget. And the question is why are
we only just doing this now. We've been spending close
to that for the past thirty years. We wouldn't be
facing so dramatic a spend today, but we didn't. We
were fat and complacent in a mistaken belief that we
were safe and sound and if something went wrong, our

(00:43):
friends would come and save us. Now we have China
knocking on our door and sailing in our seas. For
as long as I've been in the news business, which
is over thirty years now, Australia and the States have
warned that our coat tailing did not cut it, and
we had to do our bit, maybe not have fighter jets,
but at least something. So fair play to Judith Collins,
she's finally accepting the responsibility that we've always needed to take.

(01:06):
But this comes at a difficult time. Firstly, of course,
the world has become more dangerous, so time is of
the essence. And secondly, we're broke, and it comes at
a time when barely reported mass redundancies are actually happening
in defense to meet government spending targets. So with this
move they have announced. With this move, basically they are

(01:27):
firing at the moment on one hand, and yet they're
going to employ with another. Now on it, you can
argue that both the firing and the spending are both necessary,
and they're necessary because we've sat in our hands for
so long, and they're necessary because we have spent irresponsibly.
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(01:47):
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