Reuben Steff: Diplomacy isn’t enough – we need deterrence and defence

In December 2021, the Government released a defence assessment declaring that New Zealand’s security environment was being transformed by strategic competition between the United States and China, as well as climate change.

This should have been a major wake-up call for our people, government, academics and media to immediately consider what the “team of 5 million” should do to confront those mounting challenges.

But little has happened and, since 2021, things have got worse. Indeed, the assessment hardly registered.