“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.”
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“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.”
