{"id":455960,"date":"2026-06-01T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455960\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:43:09","slug":"christopher-luxon-firmly-backs-nzs-defence-spending-after-pete-hegseths-freeloading-accusation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455960\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon firmly backs NZ\u2019s defence spending after Pete Hegseth\u2019s \u2018freeloading\u2019 accusation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">He said spending 2.5% of the country\u2019s GDP on defence was \u201ca start and a good place for us to get to\u201d in wake of recent conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon confirmed New Zealand is going to maintain its nuclear-free position.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s [nuclear-free] one of the best things we\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m very proud and it isn\u2019t changing while I\u2019m prime minister. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Over the long weekend, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Shangri-La Dialogue defence and security conference that New Zealand was \u201cfreeloading\u201d off the US military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">The claim came in response to a question from Kiwi journalist Anna Fifield, after Hegseth said allies that \u201crefuse to stand up and carry their weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">At the Singapore conference, Hegseth said he expected allied governments to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence. Last week\u2019s Budget outlined how New Zealand will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/budget-2026-boost-to-defence-spending-as-surge-to-2-of-gdp-continues\/FOW3DNKV5NDURIRF6KYHNXROIM\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/budget-2026-boost-to-defence-spending-as-surge-to-2-of-gdp-continues\/FOW3DNKV5NDURIRF6KYHNXROIM\/\">boost defence spending to just over 2% of GDP<\/a> over eight years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Fifield asked Hegseth if that meant New Zealand was considered a \u201cfree rider\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Hegseth said 2% of GDP was not enough, so \u201c2% is freeloading\u201d \u2013 though he also said New Zealand and the US\u2019 relationship had been \u201ca very fruitful one for a very long time\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Allies couldn\u2019t just say: \u201c\u2018Oh, we\u2019ve been friends for a long time, so let\u2019s work together\u2019,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s: \u2018We\u2019ve been friends for a long time so you better have the same visibility as we do, because if we don\u2019t, our alliance is meaningless\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"rGEveXCr\" style=\"display:none\">Hegseth also said he didn\u2019t have anything against New Zealand and was looking forward to working with New Zealand\u2019s Defence Minister and \u201denhancing capabilities&#8221;. Defence Minister Chris Penk was in the audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He said spending 2.5% of the country\u2019s GDP on defence was \u201ca start and a good place for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[154813,74,32319,430,10704,16426,13982,1403,10537,156,50217,230135,231563,8454,5345,16427,647,6722,17154,111,139,69,3272,193,40290,21411,415,312,8262,9939,9938,80],"class_list":["post-455960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-accusation","tag-after","tag-backs","tag-celebrities","tag-choose","tag-christopher","tag-continues","tag-defence","tag-else","tag-entertainment","tag-firmly","tag-freeloading","tag-hegseths","tag-including","tag-increase","tag-luxon","tag-military","tag-minister","tag-nations","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzs","tag-other","tag-pete","tag-pressure","tag-prime","tag-says","tag-spending","tag-states","tag-united","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}