Indefensible New Zealand Simon Ewing-Jarvie

This episode was produced in the run-up to the new government’s first budget later in May. There is an expectation of increased spending on Defence. That remains to be seen but if there is, what should it be on?A lot of discussion takes place around what sort of hardware and how many people the New Zealand Defence Force needs to have in order to achieve its mission.Considerably less discussion focuses on what the Government and people of New Zealand need to do to allow the NZDF to achieve tha...

The New Zealand Defence Force has a number of well documented problems. Even at full strength, it lacks the mass, firepower and sustainability to engage in medium to high intensity conflict. However, at the moment it also has significant recruitment, retention, morale and mental health problems. The latter extends to the veteran community as well.All service chiefs are due for replacement in the next few weeks and months. With a new defence (Hon Judith Collins) and associate defence minister ...

Recorded on 6 February 2024 which is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. Simon discusses the lack of meaning of the national day for most New Zealanders. The discussion then travels to thinking about how the NZ Defence Force epitomises an effective multi-cultural example of unity for the country and how this could be enhanced while simultaneously dealing with current personnel shortages.The episode ends with a call to make the day less about grievance and appeasement and more about a national celebr...

There has been a lot of speculation about defence since the announcement of the new Cabinet. I would classify much of this as “breathless longing” in that many are joining the dots between last year’s documentary assessments, a deteriorating international security situation, a hollow defence force and a strong national security related ministerial line-up in a new government to incorrectly conclude that Defence is in for a financial sugar rush.That is simply not going to happen for reasons I ...

Welcome to Season 2 of Indefensible New Zealand - the podcast all about New Zealand's national security. In this episode, Dr Simon Ewing-Jarvie discusses the post-election situation for defence. At the time of recording, the new coalition government parties are still negotiating and it is not yet known who will be the Minister of Defence and Veterans.

Welcome to the final episode of season 1. This is the third part of our discussion about defending New Zealand against an invading force that is intent on occupying our land. In episode 8, I took a red team view of how New Zealand might be attacked. That was followed in the next two episodes with a long-range defence without the involvement of allies and a discussion about how New Zealand could be made ‘not worth the cost’ of coming too close. Now it’s time to consider the worst case, that ou...