Returning to Newsroom, SoSaturnistic drafts a compelling argument in favour of Labour’s standpoint on defence and security:

Comment: Labour will continue to deliver on defence and security

written by SoSaturnistic

In many ways, the world of even a few months ago is much different than the one we live in now. Tensions have flared up around the world in recent days and weeks, with the Australian Government announcing a wholesale review of its security strategy, China violating international law with its new national security law in Hong Kong triggering backlash, and new plans from many countries to stage an exit from areas of operations like Iraq and Afghanistan. Human rights are under serious assault with the Israeli Government making moves towards the illegal annexation of territories in the West Bank, examples of police brutality and excessive use of force documented in many countries around the world, and authoritarian regimes consolidating their authority, as we see in recent constitutional changes in Russia.

In the bigger picture we are leaving behind an age where global conflict is seen to revolve around a few states in the Middle East and are instead trending towards a situation where pluralistic societies are put on the defensive against actors, state and non-state, who seek to undermine such societies and the rules set forth by post-war international law. New Zealand and our Pacific is not isolated from these happenings, with intense cyber-attacks reported in Australia and a fairly recent flashpoint occurring over the Minerva Reefs in Tonga. It calls for a re-orientation of our own policy as we now look ahead.

Labour in Government has responded to these changing circumstances. We have worked to safely schedule a withdrawal from Iraq in our time in the coalition, following up from prior work on reducing presence in Afghanistan. Those who have served in those conventional military roles have been well-cared for by Labour’s stewardship; former Deputy Prime Minister and Labour Party Defence Minister u/boomfa_ (now a list candidate for the Labour Party) undertook good work to see long-delayed measures to care for and support our veterans implemented with the passage and enactment of the Veterans’ Support Amendment Act 2020—a commitment Labour made in the last election and one we proudly delivered. Our position is that care for veterans is something that has to be integrated with troop withdrawal to ensure that returning service members are in a situation where they can return to civilian life with greater ease, and it's only a credit to the NZDF that we have it as such.

Some of this country’s naval capabilities will need to change with time, recognising the increased importance of not only the Pacific region on the wider geopolitical scene but also the increased demands on natural resources such as fisheries and the heightened prevalence of natural disasters in the region. With climate change driving many of these phenomena in part, it’s not something that this country can avoid if we want to be a responsible part of the region. New Zealand’s search and rescue area is among the largest in the world as well, only adding to the obligations. Labour knows the value that an effective RNZN brings to the table from experience in Government; if not for the decisive deployment during the Minerva Reefs crisis we might have seen a much larger military altercation between Tonga and Fiji. Due to our decisive presence, however, we were able to uphold international law and broker an effective peace settlement in the region, despite some of the rhetoric coming from some National Party figures on the issue.

With this in mind, Labour is setting naval reform on its sights during the next parliamentary term, with one of the big agenda items being the shift of operations away from Devonport in Auckland to Whangārei. A new set of dry docks at Whangārei not only makes sense in that it adds a much-needed shot in the arm to Northland’s economy, but it also makes sense from a security perspective. Whangārei has many natural attributes, such as deeper waters and more coastal greenfield space, which make it particularly attractive as a future base of operations for the RNZN. More vessels can be based there and ultimately it adds greater operational efficiency and flexibility to our navy while also facilitating economic development, truly a win-win. This process need not require huge sums of investment even, and due to the value of the Devonport site, it may even save the Crown money in the long haul.

New Zealand also needs to overhaul its approach to cyber-security. Following the attacks on Australia, Labour has committed to improving our own cyber capabilities to ensure that, be it from a sophisticated state actor or from criminal non-state ones, we are able to be prepared. Our security regime is more advanced than our neighbours across the ditch with CORTEX technology, but it still needs greater resourcing due to new telecommunications developments across the country. New sensitive infrastructure requires more protection to go alongside it. Therefore Labour aims to deliver a much-needed boost to our cyber-security capabilities in the next term given the serious problems that hackings can inflict upon our economy, society, and even democracy if we look at examples abroad.

One would think that an attentive opposition would be able to respond to these security developments in kind, and to National’s credit there is some recognition about a few of these problems. However, it is also the case that their stance on security and promoting New Zealand’s values is fundamentally undermined by the existence of persons in their ranks who have praised authoritarian despots, as is the case with Auckland Central candidate u/My13InchDuck, or openly advocated for the violation of the law of sea, as we saw with u/Gregor_the_Beggar recently on his Fijian nationalist article about the Minerva Reefs. Even if we take the generous assumption that National’s plans are watertight, which is not the case, they simply cannot be trusted to stand up for a stable, secure Pacific region where nations work together for mutual growth in accordance with international law. They cannot be trusted to stand up for human rights and New Zealand's values when they are praising the very strongmen who undermine those values abroad.

Without our country’s values firmly entrenched within the Beehive, any promises to promote a fair system of rules internationally only come off as hollow. In contrast, Labour has a proven record of bringing those values to Government as well as pragmatic plans to keep New Zealand safe in the coming decade. We can do it again well after 11 July.