The issue with the plane started with a blown fuse, and ended with the plane needing to be flown around, without passengers, to drain it of fuel to reduce its weight.
Around 30 of the country’s top business people, Trade Minister Todd McClay, government officials, a kapa haka group and media will continue their journey to Japan this morning.
The NZDF plane is expected to be able to fly at low altitude to Brisbane, where the group will board an Air New Zealand flight to Tokyo.
The Auckland to Tokyo flight, carrying other passengers, will be diverted to Brisbane to collect the group.
Some of the bill for the change of plan will likely fall on taxpayers. The exact cost is unknown at this stage.
Collins said it has not gotten to the stage where it was more expensive to fix the plane, rather than replace it.
She also said the plane would most likely be fixed in Brisbane as it would not be able to make the journey back home safely.
Collins said it was “difficult” to spend money on new planes during the cost of living crisis.
”No Prime Minister wants to spend a lot of money on something deemed as ‘nice to have’,” Collins said.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon left the delegation and took a commercial flight from Papua New Guinea to Japan when issues with the NZDF plane became apparent on Sunday afternoon.
While he will be able to stick to his action-packed programme, the delegation will now only spend two full days in Tokyo, rather than three.
Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran, and chair Dame Therese Walsh, who are part of the delegation, helped make the arrangements while in Papua New Guinea.
Latest incident in string of embarrassing breakdowns
The incident is the latest in a string of embarrassing breakdowns involving Defence Force aircraft.
In March, a fault with the NZDF plane also forced the Prime Minister to fly commercially to Melbourne.
After several delays, media were told Luxon had been advised to fly on a commercial service after a maintenance fault was identified on the plane.
He was headed across the Tasman to meet leaders of southeast Asian nations on the sidelines of a special Australia-Asean summit.
Luxon missed two meetings due to his late arrivals.
Defence Minister Judith Collins said at the time it was embarrassing the aircraft had broken down.
Last year, a back-up Boeing 757 had to be sent to Asia in case of a breakdown of the NZDF plane carrying then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and his delegation to China.
The move attracted international attention and criticism from National and Act, who called it a source of national embarrassment.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking last Tuesday morning, Luxon said he had “every confidence” regarding the plane when asked.
“I get more building confidence every time I get on the plane,” he said at the time.
Luxon fronted media alongside his Papua New Guinea counterpart this afternoon to discuss the countries’ close ties and express New Zealand’s heartfelt sympathies over the recent deadly landslide.
The plan for the trip
Luxon has set high standards for himself and the businesspeople he’s travelling to Japan with this week.
He wants the three days in Tokyo to boost New Zealand’s exports, increase Japanese investment in New Zealand, and enhance the countries’ geopolitical ties.
Speaking to the Herald ahead of the trip, Luxon talked up particular opportunities for the space and renewable energy sectors.
With a meeting lined up with Kishida, Luxon also saw scope for more sharing of intelligence between the countries, as well as more collaboration on defence.
Luxon didn’t believe Aukus, which China sees as a threat, would feature heavily in discussions, but wanted Royal New Zealand Air Force planes to have greater access to Japanese airports.
Despite being condemned by some in the business community for criticising New Zealand when overseas, he inadvertently singled out New Zealand businesses as he attacked the Labour-led Government.
Luxon said the problem in the past was the businesses “weren’t able to convert well enough”, or turn talk into dollars, during trade trips.
He believed this trip would be different, with the top leadership from the country’s largest companies involved.
“We’ve got the right players that are going to build business in Japan, rather than just attending and coming along for the ride,” Luxon said.
“They’ve got business to do.”
Those on the trip include ANZ chief executive Antonia Watson, Rocket Lab chief executive Sir Peter Beck, Fonterra director Simon Tucker, Morrison chief executive Paul Newfield, New Zealand Super Fund head of direct investment Will Goodwin, Canterbury University vice-chancellor Cheryl de la Re, Seequent chief executive Graham Grant and Zespri chairman Nathan Flowerday.
Luxon wanted both businesses and the Government to tap into Japan’s deep pools of capital.
He saw scope for the Japanese to help plug New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit, but isn’t going to Japan with specific pitches.
He said the Government would have more to say about planning, financing and foreign investment settings later in the year.
“I’ve requested that everywhere I go now, I have a two-hour lunch with big investors that have billions of dollars to invest - not just wealthy individuals, but actually proper institutional funds,” Luxon said.
“We need all of those funds to understand we’re open for business.”
Luxon didn’t mention the fact last year one of the world’s largest fund managers, BlackRock, committed to investing $2 billion in clean energy in New Zealand, after former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern met with its chief executive Larry Fink in New York.
Luxon said New Zealand needed a more “external orientation” and he was focused on “refiring that up”.
“I need to lift the best firms in New Zealand to become globally frontiered firms,” he said.
“We don’t have the scale of the big businesses that we need to have.”
Luxon said New Zealand’s problem is those offshore “think we’re lovely - they think we’re nice - but they don’t think we’re very relevant”.
He believed foreigners thought the following of New Zealand: “They are small, they don’t really matter and we haven’t heard from them very much recently.”
Asked whether there were specific impediments to boosting New Zealand’s exports to Japan the Government could remove, Luxon said the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) made for “good trading architecture” with Japan.
As a small country, he said, “You have to be able to make sure you win share of mind, not just share of market.”
On foreign affairs, Luxon said he “may” discuss Aukus Pillar Two with Kishida.
“It won’t be high on my agenda,” he said, having just hosted a high-ranking Chinese premier in New Zealand, Li Qiang.
Aukus is a defence agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It’s controversial because it could involve the use of nuclear submarines.
Luxon said Pillar Two is about what a specific country could contribute to the alliance.
He said New Zealand is exploring, in its own right, whether there is an opportunity to participate in Pillar Two.
“We will need to make our own assessment,” Luxon said.
“We’re in very early stages of working through with officials from Australia, the UK and US. It’s pretty ill-defined and abstract.”
Jenée Tibshraeny is the Herald’s Wellington business editor, based in the Parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.
