Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has floated the possibility that a Labour-led Government might not replace New Zealand’s ageing Anzac frigates.
Hipkins gave a foreign policy speech at a breakfast organised by Diplosphere in Wellington on Wednesday morning.
He said Labour had not made a decision on the frigates.
“We need to be eyes wide open to the rapidly changing nature of New Zealand’s needs in this environment,” Hipkins said.
“Whether frigates are still going to be the most appropriate thing for New Zealand to be investing in, given 20 years from now, they may not be the best strategic fit for New Zealand. That is a really big decision that New Zealand will have to make in the next five years or so,” he said.
Hipkins said the types of capabilities New Zealand would need are changing.
However, he added that New Zealand needed a wide range of capabilities, noting that when he was Prime Minister, the Defence Force was deployed to help with disaster relief during Cyclone Gabrielle and in the Pacific.
“We were literally running out of the capability for the Defence Force to do the things that we were asking them to do.
“That does inform the types of capability that we need to be investing in – that logistical capability, that disaster capability and longer term, we have a question mark about whether spending a very large amount on frigates is the most important strategic investment for us,” he said.
Hipkins has previously spoken of not being committed to the frigates.
The replacement of the frigates has been a hot topic in Parliament for years, thanks to the fact that the frigates are now so old that maintaining them is incredibly costly – but replacing them will be one of the most expensive defence procurement projects in New Zealand’s modern history.
The 2025 Defence Capability Plan had been expected to announce a programme to replace the frigates, but instead opted for a $300-$600 million programme of improvements which would sustain them into the 2030s.
In the meantime, the war in Ukraine has highlighted the role of drone warfare. The war has challenged assumptions about the usefulness of large platforms like the frigates and highlighted the utility of small drones. In the UK, the Government has paused plans to replace large ships in favour of building smaller “hybrid” vessels capable of deploying drones.
Hipkins defended New Zealand’s involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement, saying it was one of the “misunderstood relationships New Zealand is part of”.
He said Five Eyes was not a formal alliance.
Hipkins said it was a “vital connection” for New Zealand. He said many decisions made in New Zealand, including on things like immigration policy, depend on information received from Five Eyes.
“We rely on information,” he said. However, he added that the intelligence-sharing must operate within the law.
Speaking with Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Vanushi Walters, Hipkins set out his foreign policy objectives for a future Labour-led Government.
He called for a foreign policy that was “independent, principled and unafraid”.
“Independence doesn’t mean isolation.”
Hipkins said New Zealand should have the “confidence to make our own decisions and to explain those to others”.
Walters repeated Labour’s commitments to place sanctions on Israel and to recognise a Palestinian state.
