9. JILL PETTIS (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Defence
Has he received a report claiming that defence spending was reduced from 1.8 percent to 0.9 percent of GDP; if so, is the claim correct?
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) Link to this
Yes, I have seen such a report. It is in the pamphlet I am holding, which was produced by the Exclusive Brethren to support the National Party, and it attributes that cut to the Labour Government. The defence spending cut from 1.8 percent to 0.9 percent of GDP in fact occurred between 1990 and 1997, encompassing the first two terms of the previous National Government. The claim that Labour was responsible for that is just one of the blatant lies promoted by the Exclusive Brethren in support of National at the last election—notwithstanding the biblical injunction not to bear false witness.
There is a long list of claims and I cannot go through all of them. But, again, they are demonstrably untrue. They talk about Labour decimating Defence Force numbers; in fact, the 6,000 cut in Defence Force employees was, again, under the previous National Government. They talk about the rundown in Orion and Hercules aircraft at the very time when probably around $600 million was being spent on modernising them and giving them life extensions. But the truly extraordinary claim in this pamphlet is that Labour preferred appeasement and pacifist ideals. I describe that claim as extraordinary, because it is made by a sect that refuses to take up arms in defence of our country, but that expects others to do so on its behalf. The track record is clear: East Timor, the Solomon Islands, and Afghanistan are just a few of the deployments made under the Labour-led Government, and they prove that the claim that Labour pursued appeasement is nothing but another blatant lie.
What has been the increase in spending on defence from 1999 to 2006 in dollar terms, and what is the trend in Defence Force personnel numbers?
These figures, again, contradict the lies put out in the Exclusive Brethren pamphlet. Defence expenditure was $1 billion in 1999; in 2006 it rose to $1.4 billion—an increase of 40 percent. With the $4.6 billion in the Defence Sustainability Initiative in last year’s Budget, Defence Force personnel will increase by an estimated 12 to 15 percent, with actual numbers in the last year alone having gone up from around 10,600 to 11,200.