New Zealanders should be questioning why defence is one of the few areas of government spending that will be getting a boost in this budget.

At $7.6 billion a year, spending on defence is the 7th largest slice of government spending.

“Total defence spending is more than what we spend on the Police, Justice, the Courts, Oranga Tamariki, Te Puni Kokori and Conservation combined”, said StopAUKUS spokesperson, Kevin Hackwell.

The government has already announced a $571 million increase in defence spending over the next 4 years.

“This increase is part of the government’s ‘virtue signalling’ to Australia and the USA in the lead up to a decision for NZ to join the AUKUS nuclear pact.”

Defence is getting a significant increase in funding just weeks after the Auditor General slammed as “entirely unreliable,” the Defence Force’s poor accounting for the public money it is already receiving”.

The Auditor General also called into question the Defence Force’s figures on ‘severe’ defence staff attrition, pointing out that for the year 2022/23 the rate was 14% compared to the public sector average of 16% for the same period. The present Defence Force attrition rate is reported to be 10%.

“As the Defence Force can’t properly account for its present spending, it should not be getting increases at a time when so many well managed essential public services are being cut”.

It is time for New Zealanders to seriously question our high level of spending on defence, and even whether we need a defence force?

© Scoop Media