Former defense minister Ron Mark has warned that New Zealand must maintain its military guard during the war in Ukraine.

Mark told Q+A with Jack Tame that in hindsight, his 2018 policy statement which warned against threats and “got a few people excited” might actually have been too conservative.

“They practiced a lot how daring it was. Well, look today,” Mark said.

Referring to the recent draft security agreement signed between China and the Solomon Islands, he said that “those people who constantly say that there is no threat from China are probably the same people who said that ‘there is no threat from Russia’.

While he acknowledged these were decisions only prime ministers could make, Mark also suggested that New Zealand should consider deploying SAS special forces in a training role in Ukraine.

“The direction I would give you is that Helen Clark made such a decision when she deployed the SAS to Afghanistan, totally against the views that we know of her party. But I would say that would probably be the one of the most useful things New Zealand could do,” said Mark.

His comments come at a time of high personnel attrition rates and low morale reports within the Defense Forces, particularly after their extended deployment to MIQ facilities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The question, ‘Well, why are we here?’ begins to rise.”

“You’re making it worse by locking them in an MIQ for much longer than expected, having them do work that the Department of Health should have been doing themselves for this extended period of time, it’s just gutted them,” he said. Mark.

He said army traders have come under particular attack from the private sector, due to their expertise in infrastructure and construction.

“The military as a whole is one of the best providers of trained, skilled and skilled tradespeople, and they are prime targets for the private sector, which is always willing to pay them more.”