Our cash-strapped, underfunded, overspent defence force is in line for a budget boost, and experts say it can't come soon enough

From peacekeeping on the Russia-Ukraine border to defending our own waters, experts say it can't come soon enough

Two defence experts are warning that New Zealand’s ageing navy is woefully inadequate and underfunded when it comes to protecting our waters.

Warnings like this have been shrugged off before because we are too far away to worry, but yesterday came news that three Chinese navy ships were sailing in international waters east of Sydney, and could be headed toward Pacific Islands countries, in a move that’s been called “unusual” and “provocative”.

“We seem to think that if it all goes wrong we’ll be safe down here,” former defence minister and NZ First MP, Ron Mark tells The Detail.

“The world is a volatile space and it’s been increasingly so and the one thing that you can absolutely bank on is that what you think today is going to be the situation tomorrow, will not be.”

New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone covers 4 million square kilometres of the earth’s surface but Mark says the country is not doing enough to look after it.

“We think we can protect it by penny-pinching our way forward. The only people who pay are our military personnel,” he says.

Victoria University’s director of the centre for strategic studies David Capie says the increasingly dangerous world means New Zealand will “have to do a lot for ourselves and working with our ally Australia”.

Their warnings came on the same day as it was revealed China’s naval ships were sailing 150 nautical miles off Sydney. Defence Minister Judith Collins said the Chinese naval task group was being monitored.

Professor Rory Medcalf, of the Australian National University National Security College, told Australia’s ABC that “a confronting strategic future is arriving fast”.

“It would be hard to find a more tangible sign of the need for Australia to increase defence spending and to sustain our campaign of statecraft aimed at stopping China establishing a military base in the Pacific,” he said.

New Zealand’s own defence budget is in the spotlight again with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this week responding to questions about raising it to 2 percent of GDP, which would nearly double the current funding and bring it in line with Australia’s allocation. At the same time, US President Donald Trump has been pushing for Nato members to raise their defence spending from 2 to 5 percent…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details