Defence

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• Work to rebuild our defence relationship with Australia and the US, including allowing nuclear-powered (but not nuclear armed) warships to visit.
• Re-build the NZ Defence Force to 30,000 personnel (including 20,000 TF/Reserves) over 5 years through new initiatives including Voluntary National Service.
• Increase government spending on defence so that our Armed Forces are properly equipped and trained to operate with our allies. These units could be structured around a stable long-term defensive strategy.  They would provide successive governments with a range of options in the event of a crisis, here or overseas.
• Re-merge the MOD and NZDF as recommended in the Hunn Report. (more here)

• Support developing a centre for the training of international peacekeepers in New Zealand
• Ensure that New Zealand has sufficient capabilities for peacekeeping, search and rescue, disaster relief, fisheries and border control tasks.
• Phase out the ANZAC frigates and replace with more appropriate equipment.
• Support and actively promote a policy of equal opportunity within the armed services.
• Investigate the feasibility of exempting NZDF personnel serving on overseas operations from income tax while they serve on such operations.
• Investigate the development of civilian based defence where some citizens are trained to resist aggression or usurpation by withholding cooperation and by active non-cooperation rather than military force. (more here)

• Labour will continue to deploy the NZDF on operations that are UN mandated or supported, consistent with our foreign policy approach.
• Labour will take an independent stance on which operations we choose to participate in.
• Labour will end the deployment of the SAS to Afghanistan in March 2012, at the latest.
• Labour will retain the Linton Army Camp.
• Labour will continue to enhance NZDF capabilities at RNZAF Ohakea.
• Labour will investigate the establishment of a Defence College in Palmerston North.
• Labour will ensure that NZDF bases and buildings are of sufficient quality to be safe and secure.
• Labour will explore the NZDF’s role in carrying out research and development both in the interests of enhancing its own capabilities and in contributing to innovations with civilian applications.
• Labour will ensure the NZDF has the equipment required to carry out all the tasks expected of it including overseas deployment.
• Labour will take a sustainable approach to procurement of equipment to avoid the need for rapid updating of equipment in the future, requiring best practice procurement processes to prevent cost overruns.
• Labour will ensure that the weapons available to NZDF personnel are appropriate for the operations they undertake. (more here)

Not set out on their website.

Not set out on their website.

• Integrate existing units and assets into a Joint Amphibious Task Force at the core of the Defence Force by 2015.
• Increase the effectiveness of training for our RNZAF pilots, with advanced pilot training and new advanced trainer King Air B200s aircraft.
• Replace the HMNZS ‘Endeavour’, which carries supplies and fuel for other RNZ Navy ships.
• Change the Defence Act 1990, to allow efficiency reforms in defence bureaucracy.
• Ensure local industry benefits from the delivery of new and upgraded equipment, as well as maintaining our current stock of defence equipment. (more here)

• Retain New Zealand's nuclear-free status and international leadership on disarmament issues, actively striving to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons.
• Reach a multi-party accord on ten year defence and capital equipment funding for the New Zealand Defence Force so that it is well equipped to meet peacekeeping, peace building, humanitarian and disaster relief operations. We like the concept of having, ‘the best small integrated defence force in the world’. (more here)