This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 11:20 am and is filed under defence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 11:20 am and is filed under defence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Does Labour have a policy regarding pay rates for NZDF personnel, which have been frozen for the last four years?
Well, the owners of foreign fishing vessels must be whooping with delight. Less flying hours means less patrol hours of our 200 mile fishing zone. Less patrol hours means more fishing vessels get to illegally fish in our waters undetected?
Didn’t Labour cut the Navy Reserve Patrol Boats days by getting rid off of the inshore patrol boats as a cost cutting measure?
National cut back Martime Patrol back in the 90′s when they force the RNZAF to disband the NATS Sqn that flew out of Wigram.
Anne,
Oh don’t worry RNZAF they can’t use Lethal Force now to stopped illegal boats because some pollie got rid of the strike wing. Does anyone remember what happen when NZDF caught a illegal fishing boat? Both Navy boat and the P3 couldn’t stop boat so two A4′s were sent to stop the boat back in 1978
Allen seems to still think of the 90s – the end of the cold war- as just yesterday.
The illegal fishing boats are a thing of the past due to different fishing regulations. Often they have MAF observers on board, GPS is essential ( virtually every commercial vessel around the world is tracked 24 hrs a day) and operate out of NZ ports.
Keeping a $200 mill per year strike wing to shoot up a fishing boat every 15 years ? keep to the video games.
@Allen
You should acquaint yourself with Project Protector, carried out by Labour
http://www.navy.mil.nz/visit-the-fleet/project-protector/default.htm
Labour also ordered the NH-90 helicopters, which have an operational range of 982 km – more than enough to head out over sea to intercept a fishing boat in our EEZ. The AW109 helicopters ordered by Labour for the RNZAF to operate for the Navy also have a range of 964 km.
By way of comparison, National scrapped the planned 3rd and 4th Anzac frigates that were planned in the 1990s. Labour has always been stronger on defence than National. Heck, even Labour heroes Michael Joseph Savage and Peter Fraser made for great war leaders.
@ Pete,
Really do you want to open the can of worms that is the NH90.
@Si you mean the issues addressed here? http://www.nzdf.mil.nz/news/media-releases/2012/20120413-nrnsnswstn.htm
If you want a real defence balls-up from recent history, look at the HMNZS Charles Upham.
ghostwhowalksnz
Says “Allen seems to still think of the 90s,”
I remember the 90’s very well thank you!!
Left High School in 1991 going from job to job trying to make ends , managed to get into CHCH Polytec to start my cadetship in Horticultural still going job to job finally getting a fulltime in 94, but towards the end of that year we were told that to finish the 3yr cadetship we had to folk out 45k i.e going into debt. My employer was struggling at the time with the high dollar, bad yields, and industry was facing a downturn that he couldn’t afford to help pay my fees only my wages in the end I pulled plug.
Managed join the Army in 94 very soon realize this was a joke with wages below the minimum wage, NCO’s /SNCO’s and Junior officers with kids had to go welfare to make ends. Equipment falling to bits, units being raided for equipment to maintain the troops in Bosnia, cutting corners on training courses, at the same time bases begin shut down and equipment not being replaced when they were too old to maintain or only when they out of the sky so I left in 98 for Oz a better life.
I joined the Labour Party in 91 after Grandmother and her brother told me about my Great Grandfather how he help form and fund the Labour Party in 30’s. Through Dads union contacts (He was a rep for the engineer s union a job he wanted to do since his days as a miner and a proud member of the barrier trade union, also he was a linesman in CHCH. ) I got to know a lot Union reps within the Party but was disgusted at the way CTU handed National’s ECA Act. Slowly realize that 90’s that labour was being taken over by you liberal university educated Muppets who didn’t care the working class who were doing there trade training/cadetships who were getting paid peanuts or those that were in the work force getting crap wages. The final straw for me was seeing Dad losing his union job and what I experience at Labour Party Conference especially from the Labour Youth council when I ask about trade training/cadetships, the response I got that university students mattered to the party more than us trade training/cadetships students. That ended my Labour dreams right there then and I start to plan to move to Australia..
See I remember the 90’s
Pete says:
July 9, 2012 at 9:40 am
@Allen
You should acquaint yourself with Project Protector, carried out by Labour
http://www.navy.mil.nz/visit-the-fleet/project-protector/default.htm
Pete,
Please explain why Labour went against Navy advice and brought the high risk COTS Navy Ships instead of getting proved MOTS Ships for Navy. RNZN has a ship that can only 70% of its tasking’s even then it has to be in sea state 2 for some tasking’s, talking to some RNZAF personal last month and there is some doubt that NRH- 90 weather the techo’s can maintain them in a safe manner when NH-90s closed up in the ships hanger.
The 2 OPV’s are 100 ton over weight which means any plain upgrade to any mission suites or weapon upgrades how up a weight penalty. A Salesman from INSTU (Scan Eagle UAV) when I was based in Melbourne he told me that RNZN were looking them for the OPV’S and he wasn’t happy when I told him by the way the OPV’s are 100 ton over weight “ Well there goes that contact then” his words.
This whole project has now cost the poor taxpayer an awful amount of money than it should’ve if Labour went for proven designs like the Dutch Rottemham Class LPD (They do a good Joint Support Ship as well using the same design), Meko 140 (About the same size as the OPV’s but more capable than OPV’s) and the Armadale Patrol Boats yes the Armadale’s are get flog at moment by overuse dealing with the Boat people.
Allen , you do realise that the 90s were a time of the Bolger- Shipley national government.
I would think you would find all major parties are now ‘full of university educated muppets’. Of course university was the preserve of the wealthy up to the 70s or so. National has hardly any from a full time farming background either.
C’est la vie.
C’est vrai Ghost!
!!!!
Compromise Security… Pot kettle black
Coming from the ex Government that ditched the Sky Hawks… and the best pilots in the world (at the time)
Then the Labour Government went against the Navy’s advice and bought high risk vessels (Project protector)… And then high risk helos… The LAV’s which we can now only just deliever by sea (as long as if it is not a hot spot) and can not quickly deploy by air ourselves.
The aging C130′s with a quick short term fix upgrade… instead of replacing.
Army equipment run down and bearly enough. Moral has been low ever since I left the Navy in 1991 and will never get better untill things change.
This has been ongoing since 1984 (yup ANZUS) cut back after cut back and then you wonder why we struggle to do our share of the job, including peacekeeping…
Fishing resourses are not the only thing we are protecting… China has been building up its armed forces and blue water navy, China is seriously looking and probing around the South Pacific, probably looking for places to make a new bases of operations. The Ross sea is mineral rich and probably has oil, the antartic is oil & mineral rich the only thing stopping minning is a few international treaties… (Treaties are easily stopped, especially if one did not sign it in the first place.)
Whilst most of you think why would they attack NZ well resources and lack of them will make humans do
NZ Governments serious about our defence… We can neither confirm nor deny!
Freedom isn’t free.