Source: Peace Action Wellington
Monday 7 April 2025 – “The just announced plan to spend $12 billion on weapons is a shocking waste. It shows both that there is plenty of money for desperately needed infrastructure, and that this government’s priorities are entirely in the wrong place. It also shows that this government has no plan and no leadership when it comes to the major security issue in our region: climate change,” said Valerie Morse from Peace Action Wellington.
“The $12 billion that this government plans intends to funnel to global weapons dealers in the next three years is money that would save New Zealanders’ lives if our health system was prioritised. We can’t afford a proper hospital in Dunedin or emergency care in Dargaville, but we can afford this? It shows that the massive cuts to public services are driven by ideology.”
“This new Defence Capability Plan talks about a ‘dangerous strategic environment’ but takes no responsibility for the help it has given to make it dangerous by supporting a genocide in Palestine. It says that upholding a ‘rules based international order’ is a key priority, yet it is the NZ government itself that is undermining international law by refusing to apply it to Israel. Neither Luxon, Peters or Collins has dared to say a word about the US’s full-blown attacks on international law and its institutions such as the International Criminal Court.”
The Defence Capability Plan also clearly ties NZ to deploying with the US against China. It says:
“New Zealand has a particular interest in Indo-Pacific Security. This is where our security partners are closely engaged, where Defence contributions would be expected, and where our economic and strategic interests converge. Defence will focus on contributing to activities that reinforce the existing international rules-based order.”
“Right now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and security services are all buying into the US’s fear mongering about China. That is where this drive for massive spending comes from. We should be not adopt an anti-China position simply because that is the US position.”
“Plans to expand the aerospace capability and industry are almost entirely to service the US military. These launches carry classified ‘national security’ payloads doing the dirty work of US targeting and surveillance. We have no idea what is actually being done from our shores, at places like Mahia.”
“New Zealand’s role must be to push for peaceful solutions and step away from dangerous alliances. The US is a fascist state. It is not a reliable ally as the Europeans are quickly learning, and NZ would be wise to create some distance between it and our international relations.”
“This Defence Capability Plan will not make New Zealanders safer or more secure. This plan will ensure that desperately needed public services here in Aotearoa are starved of resources and primed for privatisation, while US weapons companies drain our treasury and the US military sets us up to service them in their forever wars.”
