Shalise Tanzy

When it comes to the New Zealand Defence Force, there's a decades-long list of problems.

Barracks that aren't fit for purpose, aeroplanes that keep breaking down, and the big one, a ship lost on a reef in Samoa.

And then last year, the government's spotlight fell on our armed forces.

The government set out a goal to increase our defence spending to just over 2% of our GDP within eight years.

It also plans to spend $12 billion across the 2025 to 2028 budgets.

By New Zealand standards, that's a lot.

But by the United States' expectations, that's not enough.

That's the U.S.

Secretary of War, Pete Higsyth.

That was David Cappy, the director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

Later on in the podcast, I'll talk to him about how much we spend on our defence and whether the money is being put in the right places.

Kia ora, I'm Shalise Tansey and today on The Detail, we're talking defence spending.

How much is our defence costing us?

Where is that money going?

And why is it so important?

I start by talking to Anna Fifield.

She's an independent New Zealand journalist and a non-resident fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

She recently got back from Singapore, where she attended a summit on defence called the Shangri-La Dialogue, where she asked the question that thrust New Zealand's defence spending onto the world stage.

But before we get to that, I asked her about the summit itself.

At this conference, you asked Pete Hegseth, who is the Secretary of War for the US, you asked him a question which ended up spotlighting New Zealand's defence spending.