Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): This might be the most pleasant contribution all evening from the Government's point of view because on matters of the Defence Force—at the moment anyway—the Labour Party does not part company very much from what the current Government is doing. It is important that we ensure that our Defence Force is fit to carry out the tasks that a nation like New Zealand needs it to be able to do. Those are primarily ensuring that we can patrol and control our own exclusive economic zone that we can respond to natural disasters within our own country that we can provide support in times of natural disaster and in times of unrest in our own region that we can work closely with our friends and allies such as the Australians and other friends from further afield and that when necessary we can participate in UN-mandated multilateral efforts further afield sometimes involving the need to use a strike force. New Zealand is well-known on the international stage for contributing and I suppose punching above our weight as a small nation.Looking through the report of the select committee—unfortunately I was not able to attend the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee when the Minister appeared before it—Hon Member: We missed you.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —which was a great shame for the select committee members but they will get over it—I was interested to look at the conversations that were had about procurement because it is true that procurement of defence assets can be troublesome. This is not a problem that only New Zealand has faced. A number of defence forces around the world have had issues shall we say when trying to procure new equipment especially when trying to project forward 30 years and purchase equipment that is going to last a long period of time. It is noted that in the past there have been issues around New Zealand trying to be an early adopter and trying to customise capabilities rather than say having a more off-the-shelf approach and looking at using equipment that other defence forces that we operate alongside are using.I would also say that I think the lesson from the past is not to under-invest in Defence Force assets for a long period of time and then try to rapidly bring the Defence Force up to speed with where it should be. I think it is a matter of fact that during the 1990s there was significant under-investment in the Defence Force. We found ourselves short when deployed overseas and were unable to provide the support that we had offered to other nations. We needed to bring our Defence Force into the 21st century at pace and it was the pace that caused some of the difficulties.So it is good to see that we have a white paper that projects forward into the future. It is good to see that there is a sustainable approach to procurement outlined in these appropriations.I just want to very briefly touch on a couple of things that the select committee looked at. One is the proposal for Singaporean F-15 fighter jet pilots to train at Ōhākea. It is quite exciting as a citizen of Palmerston North—the thought of seeing F-15s flying around in the air.Ron Mark: Who disbanded it?IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Well Ron Mark would desperately like the New Zealand Air Force to have a strike force. That would be a very poor use of the resources that we have in New Zealand. We are a small nation that can provide only a small defence force and it is sensible to focus on what we can do well. I know that a man with the astonishing amount of bravado that Ron Mark has would like New Zealand to have a strike force but the rest of us in this Committee are pretty sensible about what New Zealand can actually do.So anyway in Palmerston North we are looking forward to the Singaporean F-15s coming. We hope that can go ahead because frankly Ōhākea is a very underutilised piece of Defence Force infrastructure. It would be fantastic to see more building more use of that land and more use of that asset for something that could bring a lot of economic growth to our region.