Reconsider the purchase of the P8s

The New Zealand government is about to spend $2.3 billion to buy four Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, replacing six old P-3K2 Orion planes.[1] The planes are due to be delivered and begin operations from 2023.

These planes are designed to hunt submarines and signals a troubling shift in foreign policy, moving away from an independent stance.[2]

The P8s are war-fighting planes and as such will spend much of their time overseas on exercises with Five Eyes partners (an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), or on coalition missions, most likely in the Middle East.

They will be less available for what we really need - for fisheries patrols or search and rescue over our Exclusive Economic Zone, the Southern Ocean and the South Pacific.

There are plenty of maritime surveillance planes with high technical specifications that can be purchased for less than $100 million.[3] The $2.3 billion to be spent on the P8s could be saved for much needed social spending such as increasing wages for teachers and nurses, building houses and fixing our health and mental health systems.

The New Zealand P8s will be fitted out with surveillance systems, communications platforms, and weapons targeting, all geared to work in tandem with the American and Australian P8s. In effect they do the same job.

The P8 purchase can only be interpreted as siding militarily with America, against China.

These surveillance planes, optimised for anti-submarine warfare, are only useful to fight alongside America in a major war. The purchase of four signals an even closer military alignment with the United States, and reflects badly on our non-aligned status.

Sign to show your support for New Zealand is as an independent player, acting as a mediator, peacemaker and a general advocate of progressive policies.

'The officials considering our national maritime patrol requirements concluded that New Zealand does not need to maintain a maritime patrol force that includes an anti-submarine capability.' Prime Minister Helen Clark, 2001

World BEYOND War is a new global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace.

We aim to create awareness of popular support for ending war and to further develop that support. We work to advance the idea of not just preventing any particular war but abolishing the entire institution.

We strive to replace a culture of war with one of peace in which nonviolent means of conflict resolution take the place of bloodshed.
https://worldbeyondwar.org

References
1 - Govt to spend $2.3b on planes to replace aging fleet https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/361421/govt-to-spend-2-point-3b-on-planes-to-replace-aging-fleet

2 - New sub-killer planes may never fire in anger but Govt wants the option https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105452173/New-sub-killer-planes-may-never-fire-in-anger-but-Govt-wants-the-option

3 - Canada’s Field Aviation provides such planes for clients including Australia and Sweden. http://www.fieldav.com/

Comment:

Campbell: Five reasons not to spend billions replacing P-3s http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1807/S00058/campbell-five-reasons-not-to-spend-billions-replacing-p-3s.htm

Splashing $2.3bn on aircraft erodes NZ’s independent foreign policy https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-07-2018/splashing-2-3bn-on-aircraft-erodes-nzs-independent-foreign-policy/

New Defence purchase deserves close scrutiny https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/361568/new-defence-purchase-deserves-close-scrutiny

Editorial: $2.3b Poseidon purchase is a questionable adventure for Defence Force https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/editorials/105375361/editorial-23b-poseidon-purchase-is-a-questionable-adventure-for-defence-force