NZ spent $113m helping build and use US military satellites

The money includes $15m towards sending up two new, much more powerful satellites.

8 comments

Yeah they're part of FVEY. I would assume that would be the case
- Yeah, not to mention this $113m was spent over about 12 years, with the bulk of it in 2012! It's the kind of money the government finds between the couch cushions, it's not some crazy spend.
My guess is they chipped in so they get access to the US military satellite network for our military usage.

So that when the navy, army or air force are operating away from our shores they have a reliable way of communicating back home and to our allies.
And? They're one of our closet defense partners, obviously we're going to chip in, especially when our own security will presumably benefit from the intelligence this satellite will gather.
$21 per NZ citizen to pay for that. That is not pocket change considering its just one of MANY costs required to run a society.

That includes every child, pensioners, unemployed, disabled person and others. The real cost per tax payer is MUCH higher.

How's the public healthcare in NZ? Public transport?
- Ok, so $113m is approx $1.60 per person per year.
  
  Or if only looking at the ~3.5m tax payers, then it is ~$2.70 per person per year.
  
  I don't like how you try to make the numbers harder to understand. It's really easy:
  
  $113,000,000 / 5.2 million people = $21 per person.

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