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We must march in step with Australia and upgrade our defence

Tim Hurdle Former National Party staffer and campaign strategist who has worked in both New Zealand and Australia. What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz

God Defend New Zealand is our national anthem, but is not an effective defence strategy. New Zealand was never attacked in World War II. The closest New Zealand got to that was a few Japanese and German submarines sneaking around our coastline.

Today, we look to Australia for our defence. They are our only official ally.

We need to think harder on what we can offer to back up the Aussies. The Aussies might be able to afford prime steak and prawns at the barbie, we can’t turn up with cheap sausages past their due date.

In the Australian election, defence has been a major issue for which major parties are at pains to present themselves as bolstering the military.

In World War II, Australia was attacked – in Sydney Harbour and in more than 100 Japanese air raids. Japanese commandos landed in North Australia to scout a naval base.

Australia is now the 11th largest defence spender in the world, buying the best jet fighters, tanks and nuclear submarines and expanding their defence forces to operate them. More hardware than Bunnings Warehouse.

In an increasingly volatile Pacific arc, Australia believes they will need to have the capacity to fight back against aggression.

By contrast, New Zealand’s defence policy is shaped by very different motivations than Australia.

There is no significant domestic constituency for big defence spending in New Zealand.

Having no external threat has meant that our priorities for defence issues are driven by political considerations. The New Zealand public largely values our military for disaster relief – domestic and in the Pacific.

Internationally we earn ‘‘a seat at the table’’ with traditional defence partners in the Five Eyes context by the deployment of NZSAS, Anzac frigates and P3 Orions and intelligence sharing.

When the pressure came on to do more for Ukraine, the best we could do was a 50-year-old transport plane. We are buying new transport and maritime patrol planes.

As Australia gets more sophisticated, we need to find ways to collaborate.

Recent operations in the Solomon Islands and Tonga saw NZ and Australian Defence forces working closely together. The HMNZS Wellington Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) was notable in being called

We need to think harder on what we can offer to back up the Aussies. The Aussies might be able to afford prime steak and prawns at the barbie, we can’t turn up with cheap sausages past their due date.

‘‘the workhorse’’ of the fleet.

New Zealand was to buy another similar vessel, but that was quietly pulled back in March. The project had basically taken a hatchback and tried to modify that into a bespoke SUV. Costs exploded.

Our Navy is patrolling the fourthlargest exclusive economic zone in the world, with just over 2000 uniformed staff. The problem with our new maritime patrol aircraft is we’ve bought only four to replace our existing six Orions. Another ship would be useful.

Australia has three major naval building programmes – nuclear submarines and new frigates are well beyond New Zealand budgets or tastes. The frigates replace their Anzac frigates with vessels three times the size.

South of Fremantle, Australia is building up to 20 new Offshore Patrol Vessels – known as the Arafura Class – to keep an eye on their vast coastline to the North and in the wider Pacific. New Zealand can afford these ships.

OPVs have smaller crews than frigates – but are able to meet 80% of the required tasks. They are good at doing the stuff Kiwis like their Navy doing – protecting fisheries from poachers and delivering disaster relief – but not the nasty business of modern warfare at sea.

Our existing OPVs have proven their worth, and we need to replace the existing ones in years ahead. By planning to procure Arafura Class ships to meet our needs, we would win favour in Canberra and Perth.

Crews could be trained and the fleet be interchangeable across the Pacific.

Sharing a common ship type with the Australian Navy would be very attractive to New Zealand.

Kiwis pride themselves on doing the right thing in the Pacific. We need to turn up to the barbie with some decent beer and a few choice cuts.

Focus

en-nz

2022-05-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-22T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281921661658771

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