The Government will spend more than $400 million on boosting defence personnel's wages in the coming for years, as it battles record-high attrition in the armed forces.

After a week-long trip to London for the King's Coronation, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was back in Wellington on Monday to give a pre-Budget announcement on defence spending.

Hipkins says the current wages of defence personnel were 'unfair” and leading to attrition.

'It's also putting at risk our ability to make necessary deployments whilst also responding to events such as Cyclone Gabrielle,” Hipkins says.

The Defence Force has lost 30 per cent of its uniformed staff in two years, amid a tight post-pandemic labour market. Wages paid to many personnel are considerably lower than that in the private market – most defence jobs are at least 5 per cent below their civilian equivalent, some as high as 18 per cent.

The total package to be allocated to defence at the May 18 Budget would include $243m for defence assets and infrastructure, reported by The Post earlier on Monday, as well as $419m for wages, and a further $85m for housing on defence bases.

The $243m the Government will allocate to defence capital spending will be for improvements to the Navy's two frigates, which have in recent years been overhauled; upgrades to 43 recently acquired Bushmaster vehicles; and the construction of a new refuelling facility at the Air Force's Ohakea base.

The $419m, four-year boost to defence wages effectively boosts the Defence Force's annual $1 billion wage bill by 10 per cent each year.

Chief of Defence Air Marshal Kevin Short in April says defence was offering its staff $60m in one-off payments to stop them walking out the door, and suggested at least $60m more will be needed in the coming Budget to boost wages and retain personnel.

The National Party has been urging the Government to commit more spending to defence, criticising the anticipated drop-off in defence spending in the coming years if more was allocated in future Budgets. The party has not set out how much it would spend if elected to Government.

Figures obtained by the National Party shows 362 soldiers, 4 per cent of the regular force, are paid below the living wage of $26 an hour.

- Thomas Manch/Stuff.