The grounded Defence Force Boeing 757 in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Anneke Smith
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has flown to Melbourne commercially because of a fault with the Defence Force plane.
Luxon headed across the Tasman to meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, on the sidelines of a special Australia-ASEAN summit.
He was due to fly out on a Defence Force Boeing 757 aircraft about 6am on Tuesday.
After several delays, media were told the Defence Force had identified a "maintenance fault" with the plane and advised the Prime Minister to fly on a commercial service.
By midday, the plane had still not left Wellington.
Christopher Luxon is scheduled to meet Southeast Asian leaders in Melbourne. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Luxon was scheduled to have bilateral meetings with Southeast Asian nation leaders including the presidents of the Philippines and Indonesia, and the prime ministers of Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. He missed two meetings due to the late arrival.
"Southeast Asia is incredibly important for New Zealand. The ASEAN bloc is our third largest goods export market. Stepping up our focus on the region reflects the impact it has on New Zealand's strategic and economic interests," Luxon said in a statement before leaving.
While in Melbourne he will also meet trans-Tasman business leaders, and returns on Wednesday evening.
Last year a back-up Boeing 757 was sent to Asia in case of a break down in the Defence Force plane carrying Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and his delegation to China. The move attracted international attention and criticism from National and ACT who described it as a source of national embarrassment.
'We just need to get to be a richer country'
Defence Minister Judith Collins said it was embarrassing the aircraft had broken down.
She had brought forward the NZDF capability review, that would answer some of the questions on how dated the planes are, from September to June, she said
Collins said she would have further details about the cost and options for upgrading the ageing 757 fleet, however, she said the cost is in the tens to hundreds of millions.
"Look, let's just be frank, it's a huge amount of money," she told reporters this morning. "We obviously know we need them to have better kit, better platforms as they call them, and it's a matter of money. I haven't got the money.
"It's an enormous sum of money and that's why we need to be very careful."
She said New Zealanders were in a cost of living crisis at the moment and the failure of the plane was embarrassing but it was something that should be able to be resolved eventually.
"I think we have to be realistic," she said. "A moment's embarrassment is really difficult but nothing like the fact that a lot of people are in a cost of living crisis ... we just need to get to be a richer country."
She said the interim advice about leasing a plane was that it would be too costly.
"We just can't do it at the moment - maybe a little bit later, but let's wait for the defence capability review, we'll put that into the mix."