John MacDonald: Let's not keep running down our defence force

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

I think we need to see the New Zealand Navy ship sinking as a wake-up call. Not the sinking itself, but what it’s going to mean for our Navy and our wider defence force.

The fact that we’re probably going to lose a truckload of money because of the ship being under-insured isn’t an issue for me and I wasn’t overly surprised when Finance Minister Nicola Wilis confirmed it yesterday. Because can you imagine the premiums versus the likelihood of a sinking? So I think the insurance thing is a bit of a red herring.

But any of the Navy people I’ve heard quoted in the news since the weekend haven’t been too shy to say that the loss of the Manawanui is going to be a major blow for our Navy. And I’m saying today that the Navy’s loss needs to be our wake-up call.

We need to start investing more in our defence force. And the reason I think that is that when you run a military or a defence force you do it with precision and planning. And you can only do that when you have certainty and the financial backing to run the outfit with confidence. Not on a wing and prayer, as we do at the moment.

The thing is: when it comes to government spending, you never hear people demanding more money to be spent on our military. People demand more money for health and hospitals. They demand more money for schools and education. They demand more money for life-saving drugs. But you never hear them demanding more money for the military.

Except for a few old military types who I’ve always thought have been living in the past a bit. Reliving the glory days and who can’t really get over the fact that the world has moved on, and New Zealand isn’t the player we used to be on the military front.

But I’m coming around to their way of thinking. I think the time has come where we do need to demand that more money be invested in our military. Which I never thought I would hear myself say. But I think that’s because I’m like most people - the military is kind-of out of mind, out of sight.

And the only time I really think about it is when we get an air force plane breaking down on the tarmac somewhere or, like at the weekend, we get a navy ship sinking.

Not that that happens every day. My understanding is that the Manawanui going down after hitting that reef on Saturday was the first time we’ve lost a Navy ship since World War 2.

Nevertheless, I think the time has come for some serious soul searching about the future of New Zealand’s military force. Which is kind of happening. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says a major strategic review is on the way.

The broader question though is what we think the future of our military should be and whether we think more needs to go into it. More investment.

I don't think we have any choice.

Our planes are not reliable. We’re now down a ship. Not to mention the Navy ships that are sitting idle, unable to be used because the Navy doesn’t have the crews to run them. That’s because people are leaving the Navy for jobs elsewhere.

The housing provided to our military personnel is cruddy. Black mould. Sick soldiers. Sick kids. Back in May, a military advocate —who is married to a soldier— said her goal was to show New Zealand just how horrendous conditions are for serving military personnel.

So you add all that up, and you get a defence force that we can either keep running down. Or we can invest more in the people we —and the world— relies on to keep the peace.

The time has come for us to invest more in our defence force. Because. the way it’s going, it will reach the point where it’s no use to anyone.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.