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Speaker 1: So this weekend has been spent watching the Chinese navy

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Speaker 1: use the Tasman Sea as a firing range. They've never

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Speaker 1: come this far south before, and of course everyone's going, why, well,

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Speaker 1: why I see that. David Seymour's come out and said

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Speaker 1: nothing they did was illegal. Oh we know that, mister,

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Speaker 1: of course, not there in international waters. But why they've

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Speaker 1: never done that before? Why come down there one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty miles east of Sydney and down round about

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Speaker 1: the same level as Nelson, New Zealand and fire some missiles.

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Speaker 1: Defense commentators call it a power projection. Excellent, sure, no problem.

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Speaker 1: Why do you have to project power around here? Why

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Speaker 1: do we have to divert air New Zealand and Quantus planes.

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Speaker 1: Australia believes the firing was purely to hype the fact

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Speaker 1: that we're here. It wasn't like they were testing their

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Speaker 1: missiles or anything. They were just saying, by the way, guys,

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Speaker 1: we're here. We can get down here anytime we like them.

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Speaker 1: We're ready to rock. Meanwhile, this happens at the same

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Speaker 1: time that the Cook Islands, of course have signed that

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Speaker 1: deal that we've been talking about. And then that deal

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Speaker 1: that includes wharf construction. And you read that and you

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Speaker 1: wonder how naive and stupid was Matt Brown for going

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Speaker 1: there at this time and actually signing up a deal

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Speaker 1: that actually talks about wharf construction. I mean, of course,

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Speaker 1: new wharves are lovely until one day the Chinese navy

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Speaker 1: starts using them as a staging point to invade the Pacific.

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Speaker 1: And that's going to the worst case scenario. It's even

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Speaker 1: when they come and stay, just come and stop there

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Speaker 1: for a bit to refuel. You got a Chinese boat

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Speaker 1: and news Strawts asked Auckland is how they felt in

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Speaker 1: the old days when the American submarines used to come

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Speaker 1: here and just park up in their bay. You felt

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Speaker 1: like you were a target. Anyway, this is what the

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Speaker 1: Cook Islands has committed to. So this all begs the

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Speaker 1: question why New Zealand never built a deep water base

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Speaker 1: on the island years ago. Why we did not build

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Speaker 1: a wharf. We built the international airport, which of course

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Speaker 1: is the island's lifeline, but that airport is also a

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Speaker 1: military base if it needs to be. Why didn't we

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Speaker 1: build a port, and why don't we have a New

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Speaker 1: Zealand ship stationed over there? Semi permanently. This is the

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Speaker 1: This is the entry to the Pacific. The Cook Islands

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Speaker 1: are a semi autonomous part of New Zealand and a

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Speaker 1: fine place for us to put a base. It should

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Speaker 1: have been our forward base from the get go if

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Speaker 1: we were serious about defense, and have we ever been

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Speaker 1: serious about defense? So why didn't it happen? Same thing

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Speaker 1: everything else is falling apart. We don't like spending money, Well,

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Speaker 1: that is a false economy. Now China has stolen a

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Speaker 1: march from right under our feet or should I say

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Speaker 1: our flippers. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,

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