Do we really want to spend $22 billion on warships whose only function is to slot into the US war machine?

On Sunday I went along to the launch of a new report by Just Defence on the possible new frigates that the New Zealand Government is looking at buying next year. The old frigates are nearly 30 years old.

The new warships are estimated to cost about $22 billion over the 30 year lifetime of the ships if we buy two, or double that for four (which is what the NZ military want).

The purpose of the frigates is to be part of a US aircraft carrier group.

The frigates don’t have much use outside of being part of the US military. The frigates aren’t used for fisheries patrols, they have limited use for disaster relief, rarely used for search and rescue, and only once used for Southern Ocean patrols.

The rationale for spending vast sums of public money on these entirely unproductive warships is that we would be able to play our role in the US global war machine, alongside Australia. And that global war machine is increasingly focussed on China.

So what does this US war machine do anyway?

The US has recently attacked Venezuela to kidnap its president to take control of its oil resources. It is currently engaged in an illegal war in Iran which has killed thousands and upended the global economy. The US is resourcing and arming genocide in Palestine.  It has threatened to annex Greenland and Canada. 

The US is undermining global efforts to address climate change, it has torn up global trade agreements and arms control agreements, and is subverting UN efforts to control seabed mining in international waters.

At a time when the US Government is attacking multilateral cooperation in the name of “America First’, it seems completely unhinged to want to attach our fate to the whims of the US Government.

We need more multilateral cooperation to solve issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality and AI. Not less.

We need to spend our money on cutting climate pollution, adapting to climate change, protecting our remaining biodiversity, and addressing inequality, not wasting $22 billion on war machines.