Mark RonRON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak specifically around defence the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Force. I have got to say in response to some of the very generous comments that have been made about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and how well it does that some of us would argue that it has never done as well as it did under the leadership of the Rt Hon Winston Peters—since those days of a Labour-National coalition arrangement. Some would argue that in actual fact MFAT has gone back under the leadership of Mr McCully. We wait with our breaths held to see what happens under the leadership of Gerry Brownlee. The jury will stay out on that one.It is interesting looking at the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee report on the annual review—and I will say just for Minister McClay's benefit that we are talking about 2015-16 not yesterday or today. It is interesting the things that were discussed. Defence House was questioned. I would point out to the Committee that in this briefing from Defence Force officials there was no mention made of the fact that the Defence Force building is going to have to come down yet they knew. They knew. We subsequently revealed that information through press releases and in questions in this House and we were proven correct.The question that now remains is what is being kept from us by the Defence Force so that it does not embarrass whomever. But there are serious questions about the design and the configuration of the AMP Capital - owned building and the cost that now has been borne by the Defence Force through virtue of the fact that it has had to be relocated and has lost however many man-hours person-hours—we do not know—as a consequence of a building that was built what 7 or 11 years ago. It was supposedly going to withstand hell because it was our Defence Force headquarters building. Subsequently it has not performed as well as the Thistle Inn pub just down the road.On Ministry of Defence funding we in New Zealand First note that 2015 funding income—sorry the Ministry of Defence $14 million expenditure $14 million. It came up with a surplus of $38000. It sounds to me like very fine-tuned expenditure. Maybe we should have had a look to see how much it spent in the last 4 months of that fiscal year to see whether it was wise spending to get down to only $38000 in the kitty. It did not get to zero so you know that is interesting. The Defence Force itself—the budget is $2.484 billion. There was a lot of trumpeting about the Defence Capability Plan and the injection of $20 billion.I will come to that more later on but New Zealand First still says that that is slightly less than 1 percent of GDP. We fundamentally disagree with Labour and National's view of our responsibility for maintaining a defence force. We believe it should be 2 percent of GDP end of story. It actually staggers the minds of National Party people who are joining New Zealand First that the National Government has walked away from that commitment. Do not laugh Mr Bishop. Do not laugh Mr Bishop. They will be in this House looking straight at you after the September election. Mark Patterson—it is looking like he is shaping up to be a wonderful candidate down in Clutha-Southland. The Defence Force we say is underfunded. Chris Bishop thinks that the Defence Force is well funded at less than 1 percent of GDP; we do not.I want to have a look at the auditor's report and what was stated in there. There are a couple of things that came out that were interesting. We noted that the defence white paper had been released but what was the result of that? Well the author of the defence white paper was Wayne Mapp. New Zealand First considers him to be the equivalent of National's Captain Mainwaring. But now Wayne Mapp has become famous through statements in the media that are embarrassing the current Government embarrassing the newly appointed—and hats off to Mark Mitchell for getting the job; well deserved. But now Wayne Mapp who wrote this white paper is an embarrassment to the Crown. The question is: when we criticise the white paper for its inadequacies does it not now occur to this National Government that it should go back and rethink it? Because we think that it is inadequate. It is a continuance of the National-Labour dumb-dumber deal on defence.What else have we got? The ministry is beginning a programme—no the ministry's strategic intentions document. It said it would be out in 2016-17. It is not. The Defence Estate Regeneration Programme plan was published in 2016 and yet now we have talk that the Defence Force cannot get 75 houses within 30 minutes of Whenuapai. Mr Chair—[Bell rung] This is a disaster.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Ron Mark—oh sorry you were not calling?RON MARK: No.