We’re not pulling our weight in world, says Act leader

Defence spending figures show that New Zealand is not pulling its weight in the international community, says Act leader Rodney Hide.

"We spend $6 a head per week on defence," he said. "Australia spends twice per capita what we spend."

Research compiled by the non-partisan Parliamentary Library shows New Zealand spent less than 0.9 per cent of its gross domestic product on defence in 2002 and 2003 - by far the lowest percentage among leading western powers.

The Government spends more than 10 times that amount on welfare.

Mr Hide was speaking after the controversies of Anzac Day, which saw National leader Don Brash pilloried by Defence Minister Mark Burton for raising in a dawn service speech issues of New Zealand's defence forces today and their preparedness for conflict. "We dishonour the memory of the Anzacs if we allow our defence forces to atrophy in what is clearly an unstable international environment," Dr Brash said.

He said it should be a concern for New Zealand that Australian Prime Minister John Howard had preferred a barbecue with his own troops to attending the New Zealand memorial service at Gallipoli.

Mr Burton said he would not "stoop" to answering Dr Brash on Anzac Day.

Mr Hide last night defended Mr Howard: "It's not Howard that has broken the Anzac spirit; it's New Zealand. I can understand them getting pretty tetchy with New Zealand."

New Zealand had been left ill-prepared for defending itself and we did not appreciate the dire straits the defence forces were in, he said.

The parliamentary research paper, by Paul Goldstone, concludes that New Zealand's expenditure on defence had followed the trend of other western countries since 1990. This shows a "relative decline in military spending during the early 1990s, and stabilisation since 2001", the paper said.

The trend is apparent even in the United States, which spent 4.8 per cent of GDP in 1993 and 3.5 per cent in 2003.

Australian defence spending went from 2.4 per cent in 1993 to 1.9 per cent 10 years later; Canada from 1.9 per cent to 1.2; Britain from 3.6 to 2.4; and New Zealand from 1.4 to 0.9 per cent.

The decline was in the wake of the end of the Cold War.

The director of Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies, Peter Cozens, said the National Government under Jim Bolger from 1990 had dealt defence "a pretty savage hiding", cutting expenditure by 30 per cent but it had also made the defence forces a lot more efficient.

There had always been a "rather Presbyterian frugalism" in New Zealand over spending on defence capability, which the Australians called "bludging", Mr Cozens said.

"I think we have to be a bit thick-skinned about how we react to that.

"But clearly there is more room for money to be spent in defence capability but how it manifests itself will require much more public debate than is present at the moment."

Nationmaster.com, a website that specialises in statistical comparisons among countries, suggests New Zealand defence spending is well below the US$496.9 average per person in advanced countries.

SPENDING PER PERSON:
Israel rated highest on US$1466.51
United States US$953.01
Australia, US$577.23
Britain US$527.50
Japan US$310.65
Canada US$244.07
New Zealand US$153.29