Goff Phil: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5379. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): I want to speak to the New Zealand Defence Force estimates and to begin by saying that at the estimates hearing having the Minister of Defence before the committee is a real test of whether the Minister has any knowledge or understanding of his portfolio. I regret to report to the Committee that 8 months into his portfolio Gerry Brownlee does not understand defence. He has not got a clue about it.It was interesting. We started with a fairly light issue. “Light issue” is a play on words I guess because it was about obesity problems in the Defence Force. That week there had been a major article in the paper saying that 20 percent of the Defence Force personnel were obese and 10 percent were significantly obese and the Minister said that he did not know anything about it. To give credit to Mark Mitchell he said: “But surely Minister if you banned fizzy drinks and deep-fried food from the armed services’ canteen there must be a problem?”. And Gerry Brownlee said: “Oh we were just following what Labour did in the schools 4 years earlier.” I want to know how come it is that “nanny State Gerry Brownlee” will stop adults in employment from drinking fizzy drinks but the Government removed the requirement not to put those things on the shelves of school cafes in order to look after the kids. That was curious.Then there was a question about Vanuatu. Vanuatu—we were a bit late getting there. We have a great ship the Canterbury to do the job in Vanuatu and the Minister said: “Well we can’t send our people up there till we know what they want.” We know what they want from day one. When there is a cyclone they need building materials they need water purifiers they need food and they need equipment to move the debris. But we took 2 weeks to get there and we did not put the NH90s in there as the Australians did. What did Gerry Brownlee say? I have got it here. He said the NH90s were “a dreadful purchase”. Well I want to read to the Committee the answers to two questions that I asked the Minister in the written questions for estimates: “Does the Minister stand by the assessment of the NH90 aircraft by his predecessors the Hon Wayne Mapp and the Hon Jonathan Coleman as being ‘very capable’ and ‘a quantum leap forward for New Zealand’?”. The response from Gerry Brownlee was “Yes”—yes! He said it was “a dreadful purchase” but it was a quantum leap forward according to his predecessors and he agreed.Then I asked “Has the RNZAF ever advised the Minister that the NH90s are not and will not be fit for purpose?” and the answer was no. I want to tell the Minister how angry the people are in the Royal New Zealand Air Force about his disparaging of the best rotary wing aircraft they have ever had.But the real questions came on the deployment to Iraq. I sat down and read the New York Times when I was at an international airport about the same time as the inquiry was going on. What did the New York Times report? It reported that the United States military in Iraq had more than three times the capacity for training Iraqi soldiers than was being used. They had 2000 soldiers being trained. They had capacity for 6700. So I have got to ask the question: why are we spending $65 million and putting our capable troops at risk to have 16 trainers go to Iraq when there is already a surplus of trainers in that country? The article went on to say that the other problem is that there are 22000 Iraqi troops who have deserted and 50000 ghost soldiers where the money is being ripped off and put into the private pockets of those running the military leadership.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.