Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unable to land in Hawke's Bay for visit, plane returns to Wellington

Name: Focus Live: PM announcing plan on reducing agricultural emissions
Uploaded: 2022-10-11T09:08:36+13:00
Duration: 279 s
Description: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor, and Climate Change Minister James Shaw are making an announcement in the Wairarapa on the Government's plan to reduce agricultural emissions. Video / Mark Mitchell

NZ Herald

13 Oct, 2022 01:34 AM2 mins to read

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor, and Climate Change Minister James Shaw are making an announcement in the Wairarapa on the Government's plan to reduce agricultural emissions. Video / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been forced to abort her visit to Hawke's Bay today with her flight unable to land due to poor weather.

Ardern was due to visit Hastings today alongside Housing Minister Megan Woods for a $192m Infrastructure Acceleration Fund announcement.

Following the announcement, they were due to visit a first home buyer ahead of a media stand-up.

However, the plane the Prime Minister was on had to return to Wellington due to low cloud at Hawke's Bay Airport.

A spokeswoman for Air New Zealand said several flights into Hawke's Bay today had to be cancelled, returning to where they had departed from.

Metservice reports cloudy weather in the region today with occasional rain.

Woods travelled separately to Hawke's Bay and was able to carry out the announcements and media stand-up herself.

The spending announced today is expected to enable about 11,500 homes to be built across multiple housing developments over the next 10 to 15 years.

It is targeted to Lower Hutt, Nelson, Rangiora, Ngāruawāhia, Hastings, Motueka, Whanganui and Lake Hāwea.

Parliament is not sitting this week - known as a recess week - enabling MPs to travel around the country to visit electorates and make various announcements.

On Monday, Ardern visited a range of businesses in Christchurch.

On Tuesday, Ardern travelled to a dairy farm in Featherston to announce a world-first scheme to price agricultural emissions by 2025 as part of meeting New Zealand's climate-change commitments.