NZ's defence spending is doubling, but the US says that's not enough

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth spoke at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore, where he said that allies spending less than 3.5 percent of their GDP on defence aren't spending enough, and said New Zealand is freeloading.

The New Zealand Defence Force was one of the big winners in this year's budget, but the US Secretary of War says it's still not cutting it, calling NZ 'freeloaders'

When it comes to the New Zealand Defence Force, there's a decades-long list of problems - barracks that aren't fit for purpose, planes that keep breaking down and the big one, a ship lost on a reef in Samoa.

Then last year, the government spotlight fell on our armed forces when they announced the Defence Capability Plan - a blueprint for how our government will double our defence spending to two percent of GDP by 2032/2033.

But that isn't enough by US standards.