Mark RonRON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): It is a pleasure to be able to stand albeit for a only 5-minute call on the defence service. It does give New Zealand First a little bit of a concern when we read the report from the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee on defence not so much because of the brief coverage that it does give on various matters but probably because of the matters that are not contained in this document. I would point actually to the previous speaker Kennedy Graham's comments about nuclear-free New Zealand and the Defence Force and ask him to ponder the Defence Force's role in that particularly in light of the white paper that the Government has announced and particularly in light of the announcement from the Minister for the Environment about the establishing of a marine reserve up the Kermadecs. One could ask why there is such an absence of any reference to the plying through our waters of nuclear-powered nuclear-armed submarines. Some reports might suggest there are about 120 from a smattering of countries. Other reports suggest that there might be something as high as 300 or 350 such submarines going through our waters. But there is no mention whatsoever from some parties about this aspect of the nuclear-free policy in respect of how we would protect our territorial waters or our exclusive economic zone on the limited naval resource that we have now if we were to establish a marine reserve up in the Kermadecs which we would therefore be responsible for policing monitoring and enforcing one would expect. There is no mention of how we intend to enforce monitor and police illegal fishers up in that area if we do go to the extent of declaring a marine reserve up in the Kermadecs putting aside the other issues that pertain to iwi of course which are still being pursued. I have got to point to a couple of things and these are the things that have vexed New Zealand First. Firstly we looked at the defence budget right from the start and we said there was a $10 billion defence shortfall when we first looked at it. We then got a white paper that came out and said the Government is going to spend $20 billion over 15 years but we still struggle to find anything in the appropriations that actually give some strength to that commitment or even in the slightest a vague pretence of putting out a funding plan in tabulated form so people can see exactly where the money is being appropriated over the next 15 years to meet that $20 billion product. No one from this side of the Chamber or from this political party is arguing that the Defence Force is not facing some huge challenges going forward with what we could call block-ups in essence of a range of equipment be it in the army navy or the air force. When the Government announces it is going to spend $20 billion over 15 years we would expect to see a funding plan put in place but there is nothing. There is another issue that is causing us some concern and it disappoints me that it was not covered off. I guess I am going to have to take responsibility I am going to have to pay more attention and I am going to have to go to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee meetings more often. One of things that concern us is this rising gap between the other ranks and the officer corps. Firstly if we go back over time we see that our Defence Force was three times the size it is now. And when we look at the staffing levels and the officer corps today it is astonishing. In some areas we have got three times more officers than we had then—three times. What is particularly astonishing is to see the pay differential now between the Chief of Defence Force at $605000 and that of a soldier—the person with the rifle and the bayonet at the front end who becomes a casualty in Afghanistan—at $46000. Let us get our head around that. There was a time in the defence—Hon Gerry Brownlee: That's wrong.RON MARK: Well these are the papers from your office Minister. Are you saying that is wrong? The Minister is saying: That's wrong. That's wrong." I am reading for the record from the Defence Force letter to New Zealand First signed off on behalf of the Defence Force by Commodore G R Smith Royal New Zealand Navy dated 31 May 2016. So the Minister says that I am wrong but this paper says that what I am saying is the truth. So somewhere in between someone does not know what they are talking about. I will just say that here in this column it reads: Chief of Defence Force earns $605407.69; a soldier trooper sapper or signaller earns $46730.33. Is that fair remuneration? Is that what we expect for someone who puts their life on the line and in the worst instance comes home to a military funeral? Well we do not think so. We think that the pay differential between frontline infantry soldiers and troops is totally out of kilter to what it should be and what the officer corps themselves think is appropriate."