Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Thank you Madam Speaker. Often in the Budget cycle there's a poor cousin and one can imagine that with an international war with global inflation leading to domestic inflation with supply-chain issues and with pressure on households it could be really tempting to skimp and save on things that are perceived not to hit Kiwis directly in the pocket. Certainly when we live in the most peaceful country in the world we're at the bottom of world we have a very stable environment it would be very tempting to perhaps skimp and save on defence. But it is great to see in the Schedule to the Supplementary Estimates that there are allocations not only for defence operational things but also for defence capabilities in the order of $213 million. Also tucked away in that Schedule on page 15—I can see that the Minister for Veterans is in the House Meka Whaitiri—there's about $38 million in support for veterans of agent orange who haven't previously been able to access funding for their exposures. Now one of these two new exposures has got a name that I can't pronounce; it's quite niche. But the other one is hypertension and that is a massive achievement for those veterans of the Vietnam War of agent orange who fought so long and hard to be recognised to have their ailments recognised in the former things like hypertension which we know leads to so many other debilitating medical conditions So those veterans will be eligible for an ex gratia payment of $40000 and it also applies to the spouses—mainly the widows actually of those who have passed away from those ailments. So I'd really just like to acknowledge the Minister for that and to acknowledge that that is contained in this Appropriation (2021/22 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. If that bill was not voted through those payments would not be able to be made.But we are facing in our little haven at the bottom of the world more challenge now than we have faced since World War II when it comes to insidious growing compounding threats and they are strategic competition in terms of geopolitics and also climate change. The Defence Assessment 2021 recommended that New Zealand's defence policy should shift from a predominantly reactive risk-management-centred approach to one of a deliberate and proactive strategy and we have seen that in the communication from our defence Minister the Hon Peeni Henare who spoke about climate security and green defence at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore; we've seen that with commitment of $1.3 billion over four years in Budget 2022 to a climate-finance initiative focused on the Pacific; and we have also seen that in the appropriations of $662.5 million to maintain existing defence capabilities. Now that is the largest capability investment ever in defence and it does include the $4.5 million announced this week which will be to further support Ukraine to be able to defend itself from the invasion by Russia. And we've heard today in this House the knock-on effects that that war is having. So not only is the Government contributing to that because it is the right thing to do but it is also recognising that we are in a global situation here and that the inflation that we are seeing currently domestically is very much tied to things happening in the Ukraine.I digress a little bit—still on defence—but at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning I took my 20-year-old son out to the airport in Dunedin. He had given himself a number 2 haircut because he didn't trust the people who were going to be using the clippers to clip his hair. He had a final cheese roll. He'd been up until 2 o'clock in the morning because he's not the most organised person and he is off to the army. I really do hope that they will teach him to be a little more organised and to clean his room but I'm really proud that he is going there at this time because one of the things that has happened in the Budget is that there is an appropriation of an extra $90 million—which I understand will be targeted operationally by those who make those decisions to the lowest-paid workers but also to recognise that we are in an environment with a really tight labour market and that we need to be able to recruit and retain people into our forces. Now if these bills were not to go through it would not be business as usual and work that is going along around that space to recruit and retain and to pay people their worth would not be able to happen. And what we saw in Ōhakea recently—I'm a member of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee—definitely reflects the defence Minister's focus on people infrastructure and our region the Pacific. It's a story of regeneration and it's a story of strengthening. The Defence Force has certainly been very busy not only helping manage COVID here with managed isolation facilities COVID in the Pacific with vaccinations there and also the incredible goodwill that our Defence Force builds up when they do that kind of people-to-people engagement supporting countries during difficult times. They've been busy with the Tongan eruption and the tsunami and of course they have also been busy helping the Ukraine Defence Force to be able to defend itself. It was really heartening to sit in the select committee and hear about the excellent reputation that our Defence Force has particularly around IT and digital things and communication and that was reflected also in the conversations that we had up in Ōhakea. So while that $662.5 million is to maintain existing defence capabilities the Government continues to deliver on $4.5 billion worth of major defence capability projects. And that has been the largest capability investment ever and that's 12 projects that will support our Defence Force to continue to patrol our 15000 kilometres of coastline support search and rescue disaster response and continue to defend New Zealand. And we have seen some of the progress that's been made which is on target. For example the C-130Js are going to replace the old Hercules—five of those have been ordered—and that is also referenced in the Appropriation (2021/22 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. I was lucky or unlucky enough to be one of the first journalists on the ground after the Asian tsunami in 2004 getting my transport to and fro from the current Hercules. And at that time they were feeling very old. So now some two decades on it is really timely that we get defence capability that is fit for purpose and that is also interoperable with those of our friends around the world. We've also got capability projects happening with the upgrade of the ANZAC frigates and with the HMNZS Canterbury so that we can continue to have military operations and combined operations and interoperability with key partners because that is something that is going to enable us to play a key role in ensuring that our region remains stable and is not seen as too attractive for others to come in and try and take over. We have got projects continuing in cyber-security in supporting capability and other projects with upgrading computer systems and so on. Another thing I'd just like to mention in the House today actually is also the decision to establish an Inspector-General of Defence which will be an independent oversight function for the New Zealand Defence Force. So that means even though the Operation Burnham report pointed out that the Defence Force in most respects acted within its remit and within its duties there was still room for some more independent oversight. And so the Government has acted to do that and that will be something that will certainly strengthen the ability of our Defence Force to do its job in a transparent way in a way that is trusted by the New Zealand public. There's a lot more I could say about the Defence Force but I just want to finish by acknowledging my son for choosing a life of service with our world-class Defence Force. We need that capability now; we need young people who find the Defence Force attractive who have the skills and who can operate machinery and equipment which is going to serve our region. I'm proud that our Government has ensured that our Defence Force is equipped to deal with the challenge of our time. These two bills before the House will allow us to get on with the business and do that.