Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (Minister of Defence): Firstly can I just say what a great honour it is to stand and take a call in the Committee today as the newly appointed Minister of Defence. Can I acknowledge the comments from the last speaker Ron Mark. Can I say that I make a commitment as I said to the Prime Minister when he called me to work and do the best that I can to serve this House and our country in this role and I recognise the fact that it is a great honour and a real privilege.Can I acknowledge my predecessor the Hon Gerry Brownlee. I was very lucky that last year Gerry Brownlee took me to Taji just outside of Baghdad where our troops are deployed on a joint mission with the Australian troops—an Anzac mission if you like—delivering training to the Iraqi security forces and actually some junior leader training up there as well. While I was on that trip I was lucky enough to attend with him some very high-level meetings with his counterparts including the Iraqi Minister of Defence. I was very proud of the way he had the ability to be able to advance and state our position very clearly as a country whilst also at the same time it was obvious that he was able to develop very strong personal relationships which are actually very important in terms of Government to Government relationships. So I can see clearly that he is going to be outstanding in his role as our New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs and the important work that he is going to have to do. In what we see globally there is a fair bit of instability at the moment so that foreign engagement is actually very very important.Can I just restate as well that as a country we should be very proud of the fact that we have a very independent foreign policy and we also have a very independent defence policy. That will continue.Can I just make some comments about our Defence Force maybe the international situation a little bit and then I will talk about some of the procurements because that has been brought up and focused on in this debate as well. Our Defence Force plays a unique and wide-ranging role. Few other militaries in the world cover such a broad range of tasks as the New Zealand Defence Force. Currently we have got people all around the world deployed who are training who are UN observers and peacekeepers who are engineers. We have got a wide range and a diverse range of skills and abilities that we use all around the world and they are highly valued by our partners.Its core role is being ready for combat. However our Defence Force also assists with humanitarian responses protecting our borders and ocean resources conducting search and rescue sustaining our scientists in Antarctica responding to emergencies like earthquakes or floods and responding to things like bomb disposal callouts. The most recent examples of this are the roles the Defence Force played in responding to the Kaikōura earthquake the Edgecumbe floods and the Port Hills fire. You do not often hear it spoken about but it is always there supporting providing that backup that is required on the ground for these types of environmental issues that we sometimes face.Our top priority is investing prudently and appropriately in the defence and security of New Zealand and its citizens. The international environment continues to change. Although there is a degree of uncertainty on the global stage this does not change the fact that we are a proud country with an independent defence policy. But as a maritime nation dependent on open trade routes—and I acknowledge the comments made by the Hon Todd McClay and the work that he and his officials are doing in terms of advancing a very ambitious trade policy—we are dependent on those trade routes. Our security and prosperity are closely linked to events occurring far from our shores and it is a very true statement that when we look internationally anything that is happening internationally eventually—if it has an adverse effect—will end up washing up on our shores. So it is very important that we are engaged in these issues.New Zealand therefore needs a flexible combat-ready Defence Force that is able to support national resilience at home while advancing New Zealand's interests overseas. We have over 300 personnel in operations overseas including deployments across the Middle East such as our training mission as I have spoken about in Iraq. Thank you very much.