There are concerns we're moving too slow to shore up New Zealand's security. 

A New Zealand Initiative report warns the Government's $12 billion defence plan risks being absorbed into a system too slow and fragmented to deliver for our security. 

It recommends six areas of action, including an independent 90-day review of defence policy settings reporting to Cabinet. 

New Zealand Initiative Senior Fellow and Retired Major General John Howard told Mike Hosking we need to think quite differently about national security and defence. 

He says we have combat capability, but were now in a very different contested environment and we should be making better use of intelligence capabilities and systems, including open-source intelligence and AI.  

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