Christopher Luxon: Prime Minister on accusations NZ's freeloading off the US military, Budget 2026,

“We choose our defence spending and no one else,” the Prime Minister says as the United States continues to pressure other nations, including New Zealand, to increase military spending.

Speaking with Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast, Christoper Luxon has backed New Zealand’s defence spending.

Luxon denied New Zealand is “freeloading” off America after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth fired comments at New Zealand over the weekend.

“We choose our defence spending and no one else,” Luxon said.

“I’m damn proud we’re doubling [the budget] it’s been run down over 30 years and it’s a big job building it back.”

He said spending 2.5% of the country’s GDP on defence was “a start and a good place for us to get to” in wake of recent conflict.

Luxon confirmed New Zealand is going to maintain its nuclear-free position.

“It’s [nuclear-free] one of the best things we’ve done.

“I’m very proud and it isn’t changing while I’m prime minister. Period.”

Over the long weekend, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Shangri-La Dialogue defence and security conference that New Zealand was “freeloading” off the US military.

The claim came in response to a question from Kiwi journalist Anna Fifield, after Hegseth said allies that “refuse to stand up and carry their weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business”.

At the Singapore conference, Hegseth said he expected allied governments to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence. Last week’s Budget outlined how New Zealand will boost defence spending to just over 2% of GDP over eight years.

Fifield asked Hegseth if that meant New Zealand was considered a “free rider”.

Hegseth said 2% of GDP was not enough, so “2% is freeloading” – though he also said New Zealand and the US’ relationship had been “a very fruitful one for a very long time”.

Allies couldn’t just say: “‘Oh, we’ve been friends for a long time, so let’s work together’,” Hegseth said.

“It’s: ‘We’ve been friends for a long time so you better have the same visibility as we do, because if we don’t, our alliance is meaningless’.”

Hegseth also said he didn’t have anything against New Zealand and was looking forward to working with New Zealand’s Defence Minister and ”enhancing capabilities". Defence Minister Chris Penk was in the audience.

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