25 Jun 2021

Covid-19 forced government to cut back defence spending - Henare

From Morning Report, 6:13 am on 25 June 2021

Planned new defence spending could be cut back.

The Defence Minister says Covid-19 means the government's having to run the ruler over the $20 billion defence capability plan, and there will be changes.

The ten-year spend up was announced by former minister and New Zealand First MP Ron Mark, under the coalition last term.

Peeni Henare says key projects like the P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, the new Hercules aircrafts and the frigate upgrade won't be affected.

But he told political editor, Jane Patterson, the Finance Minister has a number of options to consider, and all feature some degree of scaling back.