Muller ToddTODD MULLER (Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee): Thank you very much Mr Chairman. Actually in many respects it is very appropriate that Annette went first. She is very much the mother of the committee—Hon Annette King: What are you—the grandad?TODD MULLER: No no I mean that in a very warm and kind way.Hon Annette King: I'm sure.TODD MULLER: I do. I do mean it. But firstly before I get into a substantial conversation on the review that we had I really cannot stand here without acknowledging the extraordinary contribution of the former foreign affairs Minister Murray McCully particularly his ability to take New Zealand's values interests and intent with conviction and effect to the world stage. I think he has done that extraordinarily well. I was in Suva 3 weeks ago attending on behalf of New Zealand a foreign affairs economics Ministers meeting—there were 15 there—and every one of the 15 came up to me personally and asked after Minister McCully. It was very clear to me that he has made an extremely deep personal connection with those particular Pacific Island nations and he is certainly going to be missed.I raise that because it talks to some of the key themes that came through our foreign affairs defence and trade review. One was the deep capability that resides in that ministry and the value that is put on people and relationships and on building enduring relationships across the world to progress New Zealand's interests.Annette King has I think touched on an area in respect of our Security Council participation that I also wanted to give highlight to. That relates to the small Island States and how effective we were in advocating for them on the world stage but backing up that rhetoric with real concrete actions in terms of providing a forum for the small developing nation States to actually get a forum across the whole United Nations—the first time that this has ever happened. But I think more critically for me as we listened to the feedback from Brook Barrington and his team was it just did not stop there. There was an ongoing investment in those relationships and those countries to ensure that beyond that debate the actions that were committed to at that time were reported back on regularly to make sure they felt connected with New Zealand's efforts on the Security Council. I thought that was impressive and it was very impressive to hear that from Brook and the team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.Obviously in terms of defence again an acknowledgment I think absolutely is due to the outgoing Minister of Defence and new Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerry Brownlee. You know defence is one of those areas that when you are looking at the priorities of Government spending you can potentially argue—as many previous administrations have—that there are greater priorities than the defence of the Realm and particularly the expensive assets required to make that more than just rhetoric. He has driven the Defence Capability Plan and we heard that very explicitly through the review process—the $20 billion that has been set aside for defence to be spent through to 2030.The couple of things that really impressed me to go back to the theme that I would like to draw on this afternoon around capability were the Defence Force was very clear that to actually execute a $20 billion capital project plan over the next 14 years real capability and people and systems and process were going to be required. We heard that there is an investment of $27 million over 4 years employing 25 new staff in 2016 and a further 30 in 2017 to ensure that this programme of significant capital investment is actually delivered. From my own personal experience procurement is one thing but delivering and operationalising it and actually getting it done on time and on budget requires top people applying themselves effectively every day and that is the confidence we got from the Defence Force as it spoke to the investment going in to make sure that that happened.I do—just to finish—want to make acknowledgment of Todd McClay our Minister of Trade and a fellow neighbour MP. Again we heard through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade update to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee of the extraordinary work that is going on to promote New Zealand's interests. A number of our questions as you would expect related to our trade interests and how they were being impacted on post-Brexit and post the Trump administration. The Minister can be assured we got some very very impressive responses from the team there at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Indeed a number of the questions we raised have been subsequently answered with the extraordinary announcement over the last few weeks of our Trade Agenda 2030 which will see $91.3 million of new funding spent over 4 years in the Budget.Again just to conclude why I think this is so critical is it reinforces the point that you need to back rhetoric with capability and people whom you back around the world to be able to take New Zealand's interests to the world in an effective competent manner. The message we got from our review is that we have that in spades and New Zealand's interests are being well enhanced. Thank you.