Mark Ron: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 13 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10535. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): I have to say it was quite interesting listening to the speeches from the two major parties in the Committee. I thank Mr Goff for reciting a good part of my press release because it was New Zealand First that actually found the American Department of Defense report. But the point he makes is a very valid one and I will get to that.But what I want to address for a start is that it is something worthy of note that this Government still has not produced a white paper. When I came back to Parliament one of the first things I did when I got the defence portfolio back was to have a look to see where the white paper was at. Of course all I could find was the existing white paper which is under review and a statement in it saying that it would be reviewed in 2015. So I was naively expecting to see the defence paper reviewed in 2015 and I am sitting here looking at this report here—the latest Ministry of Defence annual report of 30 June 2015—that says yes the defence white paper will be released in 2015. Well it is actually 2016.The reason I make that point is that we have been subjected to a barrage of propositions for defence and particularly in procurement that are the very issues and the very points and the very subjects that should be addressed in the white paper and about which we should not be taking any predetermined positions or evaluations without the white paper. So trying the hard sell and the big spin on having us buy a C17 and shifting our strategic lift from sealift to airlift is a big proposition because that is what a C17 is. It is a strategic airlift capability. We thought to ourselves that we would have had a white paper first—that we would have evaluated that concept within the white paper before we started trucking them out and offering MPs rides in them and extolling the virtues of them and trying to sell them before we had actually decided we even needed them.We know that there are questions around the NH90s and I think we share some of the same concerns as the Minister of Defence. We probably do not necessarily accept the arguments of the former Minister of Defence Phil Goff because we know the problems. But these problems need to be addressed in the white paper. So we are looking forward to seeing that white paper.It is the same as the protector fleet. There are some issues in there. The latest answers to the questions that New Zealand First has put up reveal that some of our vessels have not been to sea for in one case 4 years and in another one for 3 years. We have gone from a high in 2011 of having 218 days’ patrolling by our navy on fisheries work to 9 days’ patrolling dropping down steadily in 2012 2013 2014 and 2015. In 2015 we were down to 33 days’ patrolling in our fisheries. We would say these are serious matters and these are the things that we would like to see discussed in the white paper and have the solutions for this proposed. So we are waiting out for that white paper.There is some good news. The good news I would say is the announcement of the purchase of the Lewis Machine and Tool rifle as a replacement for the God-awful Steyr which should never have been bought in the first place. But there are problems in the backdrop of that too Minister and as I understand it they sit around the capability of that company to actually deliver the order and support the order given the size and the scale of the New Zealand order is different from what it is used to. But I actually said at the time that it was a good decision and let us see that rolled out because we need to get rid of that damned Steyr. That was something that I recommended from Oman that we not buy but you know the Government of the day went off and did that anyway despite the advice of the army officers and NCOs and warrant officers on the ground.But I have got to come to the Iraq deployment. I cannot find any figures around what the misinformation campaign cost—the gagging campaign that was imposed on soldiers and the threats of being charged and court-martialled if they were found out to be talking to MPs. That sort of nonsense has no place in the New Zealand Defence Force but it happened. It happened and we are saddened by that. We questioned the deployment to Iraq and the expenditure of that money and I guess it all came to a head with the very visit that Mr Goff was just talking about.How can we have the Prime Minister reporting from Iraq that the mission has been highly successful and we are achieving all of these wonderful things as coalition forces when at the very same time the Inspector-General of the Department of Defense in the United States has issued a report slagging the entire mission talking about the very things—the poor equipment the poor support for the Iraqi troops the defections the desertions the absolute unbridled corruption? And right at the time that all this is going on—