New Zealanders should be questioning why defence is one of the few areas of government spending that is getting a massive boost in spending.

At $6.1 billion a year*, spending on defence is the 8th largest slice of government spending.

“Total defence spending over the next year will be as much as we will spend on the Police, Justice, the Courts and Conservation combined”, said Just Defence spokesperson, Kevin Hackwell.

The Budget includes over $1 billion of new capital investment for Defence, plus an additional $1.6 billion from Budget 2026.

The government plans to increase total defence spending by more than $12 billion over the next 4 years.

“This represents a massive 25% funding increase at a time when other essential public services are being cut and many women are being required to earn less than their male equivalents for similar work.”

“This increased Defence spending is part of the government’s ‘virtue signalling’ to the USA at a time when the United States is proving to be a very erratic and unreliable ally.”

Defence is getting a significant increase in funding just a year after the Auditor General slammed as “entirely unreliable,” ** the Defence Force’s poor accounting for the public money it is already receiving”.

“Any government agency that can’t properly account for its spending should not be getting massive increases at a time when so many well managed essential public services are being cut”.

It is time for New Zealanders to seriously question our high level of spending on defence, and even whether we need a defence force?

Notes:

* Defence Force $5,357 million + Ministry of Defence $496million + GCSB $263 million

** Page 5 of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee’s 2022/23 Annual review of the Ministry of Defence and the New Zealand Defence Force.

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