Little saying good stuff on defence

Stuff reports:

The Government plans to rebuild the country’s struggling Defence Force into a combat-capable military, better equipped to project itself into the Pacific and “act earlier to prevent threats”.

Defence Minister Andrew Little released the first in a series of defence policy documents on Friday morning, alongside the first national security strategy, outlining at a high-level how the Government will respond to deteriorating security within New Zealand, in the Pacific, and further abroad.

The defence policy documents made the case for the Defence Force – which has suffered extraordinary attrition and struggled to maintain ageing assets in recent years – needing to prioritise its combat readiness and ability to deter threats, though its response to humanitarian crises and disasters would continue to be “key”.

“Where possible, defence will seek to act to constrain hostile actions, will be prepared to employ military force, and engage in combat if required,” the strategy document read.

This is a welcome and good direction. The focus on combat as well as disaster relief and peace keeping is necessary.

He told the audience of MPs, officials diplomats and academics that “we do not live in a benign strategic environment”, and New Zealand was not protected by its remoteness.

He would have chosen that quote carefully. It is a direct repudiation of the view expressed by Helen Clark when she abolished the air force combat wing that we live in a benign strategic environment.

To be fair to Clark, the world has changed significantly since then.

I have many disagreements with the Government on policy, but in both foreign affairs and defence they have been doing a repositioning I heartily support.