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It’s great to be addressing the New Zealand Defence Industry Association today. Since we met back in March at your quarterly meeting, a lot has happened in defence in the last eight months.

I’d like to begin by thanking our hosts IPANZ and Deloitte for bringing together senior public servants, partners from across the public and private sectors, and many of you who took the time to help shape this new Act.

Today, Anzac Day, marks the anniversary of the first New Zealand and Australian landings on the Gallipoli peninsula on the 25th of April 1915. We remember those New Zealanders who fought and died here 98 years ago. We also pay our respects to the Turks who were fighting to defend their homeland, and our allies who fought beside us. We also commemorate the dead and those who have served in all conflicts in which New Zealand has taken part.

E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga karanga maha e huihui nei

Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

There is no more poignant and evocative place for any New Zealander to be present than at dawn on Anzac day, on the Gallipoli peninsula.

It’s a place you’ve never been to before, but at the same time you’ve grown up with. It’s a place of sadness, but a place that makes you very proud. It’s a place which for New Zealanders distils and lays clear all the qualities which we hold dear in our national character.

E ngā Mana, E Ngā Iwi, E Ngā Reo Tēnā Koutou Tēnā Koutou, Tēnā Koutou Katoa

Your Excellency, the Governor General of New Zealand Sir Jerry Mateparae, and Lady Janine; Dr Habiba Sarabi, Governor of Bamyan; Lt General Rhys Jones, Chief of Defence Force; Helene Quilter, Secretary of Defence; Peter Marshall, Commissioner of Police, Friends of New Zealand and Afghanistan.

I want to acknowledge the service men and women of the NZDF who are here today as well as the thousands who have served here before you.

Your Excellency the Governor General of New Zealand and Lady Janine Mataparae, Governor Sarabi, Lt General Rhys Jones, Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Helene Quilter, and Police Commissioner Peter Marshall.

To all those friends of New Zealand and Bamyan Province who gather here, today we pay tribute to the eight New Zealanders and 23 Afghans who have given their lives in the service of Bamyan Province, and whose names are commemorated on this joint memorial.

It’s a pleasure to be addressing the New Zealand Defence Industry Association again.

I want to focus my remarks today on a subject close to your interests: how to deliver results while managing the rising costs of doing business.

It is a topic close to the heart of our Defence Force as it juggles significant reform, making savings efficiencies, maintaining capability, while also dealing with the rising cost of defence.

Good evening,

Thank you to the co-hosts of this event: Dr Geoff Perry, Dean of the Business and Law Faculty School and David McGregor of the Auckland and Northland Territorial Forces Employer Council.

Also welcome to Brigadier Sean Trengrove the director of the NZDF Reserve Forces and other present and past members of the NZDF.

And I also especially wish to welcome to the employers who have Defence Force reservists on their staff, and also all of those from AUT.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here this evening.

Introduction

I wish to talk about how New Zealand is managing the effect on its defence force of the most challenging economic conditions seen in generations.

This is a challenge which politicians and policy makers, militaries, and industry are grappling with worldwide and of particular relevance to those of us here today.

The global financial crisis and subsequent fiscal and sovereign debt crises are having a profound and lasting effect on economies in the developed world.

Mr Secretary General, Colleagues