‘Together we’re so much better’: New Defence Minister says NZ can play bigger role

In her first time fronting Pacific media as the new Defence Minister, Judith Collins says New Zealand needs to play a bigger part in supporting the Pacific region.

“I think we need to be very much part of the world, and understand we have old friends and allies and new friends we are making.

“We need to be significantly more part of the world, rather than thinking we’re part of the Cold War times of the 1970s.”

Collins joined defence ministers from Australia, Chile, New Zealand, France, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga in Noumea for the 2023 South Pacific Defence Ministers Meeting (SPDMM).

The nations joined to discuss defence issues facing the region - which included interoperability (which refers to how the countries work together on operations), maritime security, training and building resilience for climate change.

Collins says it was a good chance to discuss how to “further things together”.

“They [the NZ Defence Force] were adamant I needed to get to it, because it involves Australia, France, and us but very importantly Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. They’re the only South Pacific nations that have a defence force.

“It’s very important that when we work together we’re so much better. And I felt it was one of those very good meetings where we decided actions to take and further things [to do] together.”

And Collins is adamant the SPDMM still has a useful role to play.

“I think it’s very much a relevant grouping, and of course there are people who have some observer status, others who might want to join.

“It acknowledges the fact that we have an interesting time in the Pacific, and we are increasingly called upon to help each other. There are opportunities for us to work together, and importantly obligations because we are friends, we have responsibility for each other.”

Collins also expressed interest in exploring options for joining AUKUS, a security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

New Zealand’s nuclear free position has meant they have sat out of AUKUS, but Collins says she would like to revisit the country’s involvement in the partnership.

“I'd like us to see, are there opportunities in defence to make us more interoperable. But also to be seen to be very much part of the mix looking after and working with the South Pacific.”

“I think we already share tremendous amounts of intelligence with other countries such as Australia.

“There’s two pillars to the AUKUS agreement: the first is around nuclear submarines and other equipment which we aren’t asking anything about. But there’s a second tier around technology and technological advancement particularly in defence. I would like to explore that one more, and that is not a nuclear option."

Watch the full interview below: