Hughes Gareth: Defence Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hughes Gareth: Defence Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:678;Page:870] 
GARETH HUGHES (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch. Nga mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I would like to share the practice in this House of acknowledging our troops in and out of uniform. I would like to acknowledge the families and loved ones of those Kiwis who have died overseas in service. As you look around the room you see reminders of the places where Kiwis have served with distinction over the decades. 
I am very happy to take a call on the Defence Amendment Bill because I come from a naval family. Mum and dad met in the New Zealand Navy. Despite what they probably wanted I went off and joined the hippy navy sailing on the  
Rainbow Warrior 
. In fact my first touch of the Defence Force was actually being assaulted on the network news when the Labour Government got rid of the Skyhawks and I went to protest about the ditching of the Skyhawks. That was a tough decision that Labour took. It was under a lot of pressure and we should be learning the lessons because what we need in 2012 is an independent defence force fit for purpose. Our fear in the Green Party and throughout New Zealand is that our defence forces are not fit for purpose; they are fit to be a key cog in the United States and other Western military processes. 
When we look around this room and at reminders of those Kiwis who have lost their lives we want to make sure they are doing it in the interests of justice internationally and in the interests of democracy. The Green Party approach to this issue is that we support an independent foreign policy. We support a non-violent diplomatic approach to conflict. We do not want to be tied into those old alliances of the past. We do not want to be going into illegal wars such as Iraq. We do not want to be going into illegal wars like Iraq under false pretences like we see in New Zealand and saw in Nicky Hager’s book  
Other People’s Wars 
. 
This bill the Defence Amendment Bill makes a number of smaller changes looking at the increased collaboration between the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence. It gives the Chief of Defence Force more authority to directly manage the navy army and air force. We believe that the bill is in fact a step towards the reintegration of the New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence as recommended in the Hunn report reversing this process we have seen in the last two decades—the separation of civilian and military systems. 
This bill is about cuts. This bill is about increasing civilianisation and changes to the Territorial Force. We have seen over the last term and a half this Government’s economic plan. We know the plan. We have seen the “drill it” part of it; we have seen the “mine it” part of it; we are seeing the “sell it” part of it right now; and here we are graphic evidence of the “cut it” part of it. This bill is going to see cuts in the order of $400 million a year from the defence forces we are going to be cutting the Territorials by a third we are cutting seven out of 10 military bands and we are seeing hundreds and hundreds of uniform jobs going to civilians. 
This bill is about cuts to go with the “drill it” “mine it” cut it” and “sell it”. It comes from the white paper—the Hunn report from 2002. The white paper looked at our strategic environment and looked at threats over the next 25 years. It said it is going to be a more challenging strategic environment over the next 25 years and highlighted threats such as the fragility of the Pacific and terrorism as a continuing threat. It also highlighted a particular threat to us down at the bottom of the world in the South Pacific: illegal migration. 
A point missing from the defence report the Hunn report of course was the role of climate change. We are likely to see literally hundreds of millions of climate refugees from those delta regions from around the world and the way our defence forces are set up they are not fit for purpose. We have got these floating white elephants these more than $600 million worth—I wonder what the cost is now—of frigates. It costs $400 million a year to run these two frigates. So while we are looking at cuts let us look at more appropriate ways we could be saving the New Zealand taxpayer money. What we would rather see is cuts to those frigates those floating white elephants not to the military bands and not increasing civilianisation. We have got $600 million for new air defences the frigates and the $900 million for new helicopters. If we had an independent foreign policy if we were trying to design our defence forces to be fit for purpose we would be making different decisions. 
It is disappointing to see Labour supporting this bill because the Greens will be opposing it. We are going to take a constructive approach in the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee but ultimately all in all what we want to see is a promotion of independence from New Zealand. What we see and this is in the white paper is that this bill is all about being a stalwart ally of the United States as outlined so blatantly in the Hunn report. Kia ora.