When it comes to the New Zealand Defence Force, there’s a decades-long list of problems – barracks that aren’t fit for purpose, planes that keep breaking down and the big one, a ship lost on a reef in Samoa.
Then last year, the Government spotlight fell on our armed forces when they announced the Defence Capability Plan – a blueprint for how our government will double our defence spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2032/2033.
But that isn’t enough by US standards.
During a defence summit called the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in late May, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that 3.5 percent of a country’s GDP should become the “new global norm” when it comes to defence spending.
“We demand 3.5 percent from our allies and partners and we are going well beyond that number,” Hegseth said. “But for those who believe they can continue to free ride on the generosity of the American taxpayer, hear us now. Those days are over.
“Allies who refuse to step up and carry their own weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business.”
So, where does that leave New Zealand?
Independent New Zealand journalist Anna Fifield, who is currently a non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, asked this question to Hegseth, who then labelled New Zealand “freeloaders”.
“Listen, if I’m being honest, 2 percent is not enough and so 2 percent is freeloading, but I don’t have anything against New Zealand,” Hegseth told her.
Fifield says that although Hegseth seemed to hold back in his speech, it still wasn’t warmly received by all.
“It was pretty moderate by his standards, in terms of the language on China. But it was pretty offensive, frankly by everybody else’s [standards], in terms of him standing up there and telling officials from all of these sovereign nations that they need to be spending more – much, much more – on defence if they want to remain a friend of the United States.”
But should New Zealand be spending 3.5 percent of our GDP?
David Capie, the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, doesn’t think so.
“There were plenty of countries on that list that he spoke fairly warmly of that aren’t spending 3.5 percent. So, I don’t think New Zealand’s going to get to 3.5 percent and nor do I think it should. But I think what it needs to do is to say ‘Hey, what do we need to spend for our own reasons? For our own interests?'”
Despite not spending enough on defence by Hegseth’s standards, the Government has been increasing the Defence Force’s budget.
In the most recent budget, the NZDF got a funding boost that lifted its spending to $5.49 billion in 2026/2027 (which is around 1.2 percent of our GDP).
According to the Defence Force’s 2025 Annual Report, the Navy spent $866 million in 2024 and is estimated to have spent $782 million in 2025.
Then the Air Force, which spent $1.1 billion dollars in 2024 and is estimated to have spent around a million dollars less in 2025.
The Army spent $1.14 billion on troops in 2024, and it’s estimated that last year it spent $1.16 billion.
An additional $669 million on top of that went towards other defence capabilities such as policy advice, services to veterans, and the aftermath of the sinking of the HMNZS Manawanui, totalling $3.79 billion in the 2024/2025 financial year.
But is it enough?
To answer that question, Capie says we need to look beyond New Zealand.
“I think it’s probably something that’s come home to every New Zealander in the last five years is that the world is becoming a much, much more dangerous place,” he says.
“We’ve seen war return to Europe and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine. We’ve seen war in Gaza and in the Middle East. And we’ve seen coercion begin to be much more acceptable for big powers.
“I think there is a sense that the world that New Zealand used to think of – its security could be provided by distance and also by the workings of international institutions like the UN – I think there’s a real sense that that world is rapidly disappearing in the rear-view mirror and I think that raises the question of, ‘What are we going to do for ourselves? And what are we going to do with our close partners and our ally Australia?'”
With wars playing out thousands of kilometres away and New Zealand being surrounded by vast amounts of ocean, why are we spending so much on our defence?
Fifield says that our Government needs to do to better to explain their reasoning.
“The Government here could be doing, and should be doing, a lot more to convince the New Zealand public even that we need to spend 2 percent of our GDP on defence.
“But also the Government hasn’t, in my view, made a good case for who our adversary is, what wars we’re preparing to fight. I asked these questions directly to Minister of Defence Chris Penk when I interviewed him [last week] and he didn’t respond,” says Fifield.
“Because the fact is China has not gotten any closer, we are not South Korea or Japan right in its backyard. But at the same time, it is an increasing threat across the region.”
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