Henare Tau: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17572. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.Hon TAU HENARE (National) to theMinister of Defence: What will Budget 2014 mean for the New Zealand Defence Force?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence): As we announced last week in Budget 2014 the Government will be investing $100.9 million of operating expenditure in defence for the 2014-15 year. This is the first stage of an allocation of $535 million in additional funding over the next 4 years. This new funding will enable the New Zealand Defence Force to deliver on theDefence White Paper 2010 to maintain and improve its current mix of capabilities and to sustain and grow personnel numbers over time.Hon Tau Henare: Why is investment in the New Zealand Defence Force needed?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: The Government inherited a significant funding hole from the previous Labour Government. It had ordered new equipment that it could not afford to run such as the NH90 helicopters. TheDefence White Paper 2010 signalled that new money would be required over time to maintain and improve New Zealand Defence Force capabilities. The Government commissioned the Defence Mid-point Rebalancing Review to look at the costing of various combinations of capabilities that would enable the New Zealand Defence Force to meet the Government’s expectations. Budget 2014 provides the funding that the New Zealand Defence Force now requires.Hon Tau Henare: What new capabilities are on the horizon for the New Zealand Defence Force?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: In the last year the Government purchased eight new Seasprite naval helicopters for $242 million 200 new state-of-the-art trucks and 11 new T-6C air trainers as part of a $154 million pilot training package. Just last week the Defence Force signed a $446 million contract for a self-defence upgrade of the navy’s frigates and a contract for a new battle-training facility for the New Zealand Special Air Service will be signed shortly.Hon Phil Goff: Will the problems disclosed in the Minister’s latest Defence Force annual report—which discloses that critical trade groups are “seriously degraded” that the Defence Force is unable to “meet all expected outputs and readiness” and that thereis “an increase in the risk of Army’s ability to sustain a deployed force”—be solved by his latest package where he is putting back in $100 million but since 2012 has been demanding cuts of $350 million to $400 million a year which caused those problems?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: What I can say is that the defence budget has not been cut. It is completely untrue to say that. We are putting extra money on top of that. We are solving the problems we were left by Phil Goff. When he was Minister of Defence the front page of theNew Zealand Heraldon Thursday 4 September 2008 said “Can’t sail can’t fly can’t fight” and that the defence chiefs presented a damning picture of the state of New Zealand’s armed forces under Phil Goff. We have been left with solving the problems which we are doing.Hon Phil Goff: I seek leave of the House to table a statement from the Minister of Defence in 2012 that the Defence Force—Mr SPEAKER: Order! No. Such information is freely available to members.