Mark Ron: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11799. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I rise proudly on behalf of New Zealand First to take part in this debate. I want to say that it was interesting hearing the Minister of Defence’s speech here today trying to convince the House that the National Party is the only party that understands rural provincial New Zealand and using as an example to quote him his “deep knowledge of farming” and telling us all that there are “50 million sheep in New Zealand”. Well there might be 50 million sheep who follow the National Party around but let me assure of this: there are only 29 million sheep in New Zealand right now Mr Brownlee. So if that is an example of how connected the National Party is today with the rural sector then it is a—buzz!—fail big time.The other point is that he lamented the fact that he never got a question from me on the defence white paper today. Well how bizarre because Mr Brownlee spent 3 minutes of his 5 minutes attacking Mr Fletcher Tabuteau—someone who seems to scare him more than the Taliban I might add. He only devoted less than 1 minute of his speech to his defence white paper himself so push it off to one side.New Zealand First would argue that there is no party in this House more committed to a strong Defence Force. The defence of our nation the defence of our sovereignty of our flag of our way of life and the protection and enhancement of our Defence Force capabilities and our Defence Force personnel are chiselled in stone here because we have fought the battles on behalf of the Defence Force at a time when the National Party would have us believe that Defence Force members did not need a pay rise because they got free dental care. And that was a quote from Jenny Shipley actually back in the 1990s.New Zealand First would like to think that on a matter of defence it is of such importance that we might see some attempt to form a political consensus across the House when producing a white paper and when making policy of this nature to prevent the debacles and the reversals that we have had to sit here and witness in this House through successive Governments be they National or Labour.Debacles reversals—let us talk about a couple. Let us talk about the debacle of the light armoured vehicle purchase where New Zealand First tried strenuously to stop the Labour Government doing that but it went ahead and now we are stuck with what we have got. And the NH90 purchase which has got massive shortfalls in respect of its marinisation something that does not appear to be getting addressed in the defence white paper—David Shearer: Actually that’s rubbish.RON MARK: It is not rubbish Mr Shearer.David Shearer: It is rubbish.RON MARK: Read the reports. So we will move on.David Shearer: Read the reports Ron.RON MARK: Touched a nerve over there.The reversals—let us talk about the decision by a National Government to purchase F-16 fighters promptly overturned by an incoming Labour Government. Promises from the National Party—and I can quote Simon Power word for word in his speech at a hall in Bulls—that the National Party “would reinstate the air combat capability mark my words” were backed up by the ACT Party which said “it will happen in a National-ACT coalition Government.” And what did we see? A complete abandonment of that promise by the National Party. In this defence white paper today is there any mention of re-establishing the air combat capability? Not a mutter not a murmur not a syllable—nothing neh nyet zipper zero.What New Zealand First would like to see is some commitment to give stability and security to the Defence Force personnel whom the honourable Mark Mitchell just applauded. I have to say if there is one person who does understand Iraq and does understand the issues it certainly is not Mr Brownlee; it is certainly Mr Mitchell. I applaud that and I thank him for his comments.We would say this to the National Party: we are working on a white paper which we will release in time and in doing that we have uncovered some things. We have looked at the white paper produced today—I have to say to Mr Brownlee it is a bit hard to debate your white paper when you are briefing the media and you are holding a press conference and you have not seen fit to put the paper up on the website so that the rest of Parliament could access it. What was it—1 o’clock in the afternoon when they finally put it up? Or was it just short of 1 o’clock? That is absolutely appalling behaviour by the Government.If one wants a debate on it then tell the Speaker to give us an urgent debate; if one wants a debate on it put the paper out in a timely manner at the same time the Government gives it to the media. I rest my case on that. But if one wants to have a look at the very issue that Mr Mitchell raised the personnel issue have a look at this diagram here. Over successive years between 1984—