A lousy $5 million for Ukraine

The PM announced:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today that New Zealand will provide a further $5 million contribution of non-lethal military assistance to support Ukraine, and are making available a range of surplus defence equipment to share with Ukraine at their request.

Funding will be primarily directed to the NATO Trust Fund which provides much needed fuel, military rations, communications and military first aid kits to support Ukraine.

So we will be assisting Ukraine to the level of 10% of what the Government spent on wanting to do a cycle bridge in Auckland. It’s less than a quarter of what they are spending on a train service from Hamilton used by 30 people a day. And for a country of 44 million fighting off a vicious invasion.

Australia is giving A$96 million of military assistance. That is 20 times as much as New Zealand.