McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. The ACT Party believes that if New Zealand wants to show the world that we are proud of our liberal democracy we have to be willing and capable of defending it. It was good to see the Minister of Defence putting the spotlight on the issues that he and the Defence Force are facing in a recent media interview especially on the back of comments made publicly by the Chief of Defence Force last month. The most pressing issue which has been well canvassed in the media—well to some degree anyway; I'm trying to help with that—is attrition particularly with the army. The Minister stated in his recent interview These are some of the worst rates that the Defence Force has seen in its history." While the army's overall attrition rate of 17.4 percent as reported in August is troubling in and of itself an even bleaker picture emerges when you drill down into the details.If we take the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps as an example those with the rank of private are leaving at a staggering rate of 51 percent up from an already high attrition last year of 26 percent. The trades in particular are suffering and it's bad wherever you look. Firefighters are as high as 60 percent. For electricians it's up to 66 percent and for electronic warfare operators which is something that is becoming a bit more important in this theatre the attrition rate is up to 68 percent—absolutely astonishing. A smoking-hot labour market as the Minister of Defence put it is attracting people away from the Defence Force. So the question is: how will the Government respond in terms of remuneration and working conditions for defence personnel? The Minister also noted that Operation Protect was the last straw for many personnel which was basically as we know posting soldiers to guard hotel rooms. Indeed figures earlier this year put it at over 600 personnel—I'm sure that number is higher now—of those who were involved in Operation Protect have now left the Defence Force.That leads me to the issue of remuneration. It was quite something when the Chief of Defence Force said recently that the $90 million over four years as promised in Budget 2022 just doesn't cut it. With inflation soaring it has been wiped out in an instant. I applaud the Minister for being upfront when asked if we pay the Defence Force personnel enough and he said "Me personally I don't think we do." One stat that is incredibly concerning is that there are 2746 army personnel with a base salary less than $44096 per year. The reason I asked about such a precise figure is because that's minimum wage. So the party that is supposedly for the worker is paying a third of its uniformed personnel below the minimum wage just because they can get away with it in the armed forces. That is staggering. No wonder in the findings from the latest pulse survey—that's the internal Defence Force survey—63 percent of respondents did not agree with the statement "The pay I receive is fair for the work I do."A brief but important note on recruitment—it's part of the equation—according to the Minister 62 percent of job types have not met their enlistment targets this year and that I'm sure goes some way to explaining the Chief of Defence Force stating that it could take up to 10 years to get out of this hole that they're in. One quick point on leadership that is a worry: the latest pulse survey also produced quite a shock result. When personnel were presented with the statement "I trust senior/organisational leadership." just 19 percent of Defence Force personnel agreed with that statement—in terms of trusting their leadership; 19 percent. It's astonishing. So what does this all mean for the country and for the Defence Force? Well capabilities across the board will be severely impacted. New Zealand will not be able to respond to calls for assistance from our friends in the Pacific or confront threats in our backyard. If the situation doesn't improve the Defence Force is actually at risk of collapse as attrition severely outweighs recruitment.So what would ACT do? Well New Zealand needs to do its part in protecting our way of life and values. We need to invest in ourselves and strengthen our alliances. By doing so we make it clear that we are a proud nation that will protect its waters and territories if necessary. We say that we should demonstrate the same commitment as our traditional allies—2 percent of GDP. In dollars that means we are committing to over $9 billion annually by 2026. That is almost double what Labour would spend. This significant increase in spending would send a message to our defence personnel that we value their service and to the rest of the world that we take our defence obligations in our backyard seriously. In Government ACT will ensure that the Defence Force has the people the equipment and the means necessary to defend our nation. Thank you Madam Speaker."