DEFENCE
Opinion: Protesters beat hollow victory drum As news that there would be no NZDIA Annual Forum in 2019 became public, protest groups were quick to record it as a win. The tempo of Defence procurement and rate of NZDIA membership growth, writes Nicholas Dynon, suggest otherwise. On 01 October, Radio New Zealand October reported that “protest groups have said they are “thrilled” to learn the forum is not going ahead”. A Facebook post just a day earlier by Auckland Peace Action commented that “undoubtedly, the event is not being held because protests and public opposition has been so strong and so effective, that they no longer think a large scale gathering like this is tenable.” The NZDIA, however, was quick to rebuke the protest group’s claims. Responding to media enquiries, NZDIA Chair Andrew Ford pointed out that the NZDIA had clearly indicated it was considering options to change its event schedule and format for this year during media interviews at the 2018 Forum. “Our executive and board regularly review event schedules and format to create better value for our members and the sector they support,” stated NZDIA Chair Andrew Ford. “In this review, we consider a wide range of risk, issues and benefits”. These include delegate and community safety in the face of protest action; scheduling a single major event; growing costs of hosting large corporate events; competing export opportunities and events offered regionally; and the need to remain focussed on creating relationshipbased engagement opportunities for NZ national security agencies. Furthermore, stated Ford, 2019 has coincided with both the Avalon air show in Melbourne and the Pacific 2019 expo in Sydney. “As an association with limited funding, it was felt that our focus was better spent creating a presence at these events for our members, which NZDF, NZ MoD 26
and international clients and partners would also be attending,” he stated. “We are successfully engaged in a series of smaller more targeted forums that address specific areas of need and requirements for clients and members.” These, Ford pointed out, are more accessible to the Association’s SME members, creating superior “relationship building opportunities.” The show goes on “Our members, NZDF and the Ministry of Defence are doing no less business this year than previous,” said Ford. “We believe that includes returning economic benefit from public procurement through NZ companies, to their employees and communities.”
Indeed, the association’s membership has continued to grow throughout 2019, with more private sector suppliers to New Zealand’s defence and national security-focused government agencies seeing benefit in the engagement and networking opportunities offered by NZDIA membership. That the business of equipping our Defence Force, national security and law enforcement agencies remains unabated is a reality not lost on protest groups. `“Now I will be the first to admit that this is not the end of the military industrial complex,” Auckland Peace Action Spokesperson Valerie Morse told RNZ. “We have not defeated the war machine and the New Zealand Line of Defence
