The Government plans to rebuild the country's struggling Defence Force into a combat-capable military, better equipped to project itself into the Pacific and "act earlier to prevent threats".

Defence Minister Andrew Little released the first in a series of defence policy documents on Friday morning, alongside the first national security strategy, outlining at a high-level how the Government will respond to deteriorating security within New Zealand, in the Pacific, and further abroad.

The defence policy documents made the case for the Defence Force – which has suffered extraordinary attrition and struggled to maintain ageing assets in recent years – needing to prioritise its combat readiness and ability to deter threats, though its response to humanitarian crises and disasters would continue to be “key”.

“Where possible, defence will seek to act to constrain hostile actions, will be prepared to employ military force, and engage in combat if required,” the strategy document read.

Little made the Government's new “roadmap” public at a breakfast event held at Parliament on Friday, alongside the chief of defence, Air Marshal Kevin Short, defence secretary, Andrew Bridgman, and national security chief, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Rebecca Kitteridge.

He told the audience of MPs, officials diplomats and academics that “we do not live in a benign strategic environment”, and New Zealand was not protected by its remoteness.

“The changes in the domestic and international security environment mean our response and preparedness must change too,” he said.

“This means we must be prepared to equip ourselves with trained personnel, assets and material, and appropriate international relationships in order to protect our own defence and national security.”

Both the defence strategy and national security strategy highlighted concern about China’s growing military power and its attempts to build influence in the Pacific.

“An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms,” the defence strategy read.

“Beijing continues to invest heavily in growing and modernising its military, and is increasingly able to project military and paramilitary force beyond its immediate region, including across the wider Indo-Pacific.”

It said the Chinese Government had been trying to “grow its political, economic, and security influence in the Pacific at the expense of more traditional partners such as New Zealand and Australia”.

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While growing “strategic interest” in the Pacific could be positive for the region’s economic development, it also risked the security and sovereignty of Pacific Island countries, and could lead to “a persistent military presence” by a state New Zealand doesn’t agree with, “even military confrontation or conflict”.

To deal with this growing competition between countries, and the security impact of climate change, the policy document said the Defence Force needed to act “early and deliberately” with partners including Australia, Pacific nations, and the United States.

“Defence must be able to defend, if necessary, New Zealand’s sovereign territory and maritime interests. Defence will be ready to commit to global security efforts, particularly where New Zealand’s interests are clearly engaged.”

The design of the “future force”, as per another policy document, needed to be based on eight principles: combat capability, concurrency (the ability to deploy to multiple places at once), resilience, flexibility, scalability, “partnered”, making use of technology, and reducing “system complexity”.

Little said investing in defence was a “decades-long” project.

“It’s just not possible to buy reliable capability in an emergency.”

‘An era of disruption’

The new national security strategy, the first such document produced by a government in New Zealand, has spelt out in greater detail the “core issues” the Government’s national security agencies – which includes the intelligence agencies, defence, foreign affairs ministry, and police – are concerned with.

The 12 core issues are: strategic competition in the international system, emerging and critical technologies, disinformation, foreign interference and spying, terrorism and violent extremism, transnational crime, economic security, Pacific security, as well as maritime, border, cyber, and space security.

This list of issues is a move away from an “all hazards, all risks” approach previously taken to national security, which had the agencies focus on a longer list of priorities that included climate change and environmental issues, issues in Asia, and threats to New Zealanders overseas.

The new strategy set out goals for the coming years, including increasing the public’s understanding of the issues and trust in national security agencies, “acting early” to prevent threats where possible.

Little said a “mature conversation” about national security was long overdue. The Security and Intelligence Service would publish its first assessment of the “security threat environment” next week, he said, adding to the picture of New Zealand’s security produced on Friday.