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Judith Collins: Defence Minister on funding announced for new Defence Force helicopters · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Of Collins out on the tarmac at for Neua Pie yesterday, Sonorri,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: they were a hark here. I think I have to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: clarify with her when she comes on. She's here now.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Money has been put aside for the Defense Force to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: go shopping for five new c Sprite helicopters. Two billion
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: dollars set aside, plus a billion over four years on
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: other stuff. Personnel will get better digs, they'll do longer
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: deployments around the world, and they will do more of them.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Ministers here, good morning.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, good morning, Ryan.
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  Speaker 1: And it was now look great announcement. I'm sure it
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: will be welcomed by those who buy the troops. But
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: is it Is it an announcement about an announcement? I mean,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we haven't even got a case through Cabinet yet, We've
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: got no contract sign we've got no procurement register, no
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: funding really approved, just set aside.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: What was it set aside? It's an announcement to say
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: to people and those that we are looking to procure from,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we've got the money and we're about to put out
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the tenders basically, and so yes, it's actually a very
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: big announcement. And then the other thing is the extra
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: almost billion dollars over the next four years for operational reasons.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: So it's a big announcement. We're very excited about it,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and our defense force person I've got to say, are
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: absolutely cockahoomaverage.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I can imagine the billion dollars is big. We'll get
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to that in a second. But why does it need
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: so that the seas right, helicopter's right, you come out.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: You see we've got two billion bucks. We want them,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: we want five of them. Why do you then need
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: to go away? Do they have to go away into
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a business case to cabinet? Is that a waste of time?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Given you've said that you know the the financials and
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the number.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: It's just the normal processes and government and the reason
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: there's and I you know, I think it's really important
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: to understand this is big bucks, it's tax money, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: we always do this, so we always go into a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: business case as to why, and then we come up
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: with the options for procurement. But the reason for that is,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, we're not announcing this without knowing we're going
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: to do it. But you do need to be able
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: to put the work in to say nobody wants to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: have another purchase back in early two thousands of another
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: one hundred and something labs. Nobody wants to have that
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  Speaker 2: sort of thing happening, and we haven't. We've had really
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: good procurement in the last decade or so, so we
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: need to make sure we continue down that pathway.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: This extra billion you're giving, do you expect our soldiers,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: our front line, we'll get a pay rise out of this.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm not going to talk about that because that's
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  Speaker 2: the Chief of Defense Forces.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: But what it means, well.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: My expectation is that we've had some quite big pay
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: rises last year around remuneration. So when people say, oh,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: there's been no paper, that's not true. But actually every
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: time our people go on deployment, they get a benefit
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: from that, so they get extra money from that too.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: So they want to be deployment. They want to be
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: sitting at home fighting over remote control. They want to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: be out there representing their country. But it does mean
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: is that they'll have better places to live in that
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: there'll be better investment in their work they're training, but
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: also more staff that's also part of it. So you know,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: there's it's quite a substantial thing. And frankly, after thirty
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: five years with a couple of years where that it
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: wasn't true. Thirty five years of underspending, cutting and just
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: basically raping and pillaging of our defense force assets. This
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: is a huge turnaround.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: More missions, longer missions, further missions. Great. They will love this,
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  Speaker 1: and I know it's on operational issue for them to decide,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: But do you expect we will see more patrols, more
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: involvement in drills in the South China Sea, more like
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Valiant Shield exercise with the US, more
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of that stuff.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I think you're going to see more of a lot more.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: So our people have been in Bahrain, have been doing
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: things around the Red Sea that have been everywhere, and
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: they're sitting around the Indian Ocean. They're working with the
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Indian Navy as well on interdictions around massive drug classicking
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: heroine and those sorts of things. So you know, you're
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: just going to see more of them. But also the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: big thing for them is that's what they join for.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: And I think you know too, is that some of this.
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  Speaker 2: We've got critical estate managed maintenance of twenty six million,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: one hundred and four million of over four years. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: that's enormous, But the reason is because nothing's been done
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: for a very long time.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Winston says we need to get to two percent faster.
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  Speaker 1: Do you agree with them?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Well we've said that if we can,
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: we will, and we've also said two is that the.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: If you want at Winston once, who's the whole, up
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the whole.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: We need to actually have the economy growing so we
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: can do that. But the other thing is every two
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: years we'll check in. We're called them that this is
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: a flaw, not a ceiling, and if we can get faster,
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: we will. But you can't do it without the personnel.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: And that's part of what we're doing here.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. Defense Minister Judith Collins. For more
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks.
• 5:21
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• 5:25
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