Jason Walls: ZB political editor on Prime Minister Luxon's trip to Japan being impacted by plane breakdown

Christopher Luxon is on the ground in Japan, but his business delegation won't be touching down for another day.

The Prime Minister's plane has broken down yet again, this time while refuelling in Papua New Guinea.

Luxon's been forced to fly commercial to Tokyo, while the business leaders, officials and others in his delegation are travelling to Brisbane and then on to Japan today.

ZB political editor Jason Walls says Luxon abruptly disappeared from the airport, leaving his delegation confused about what was happening.

"The Prime Minister leaving took everybody by surprise, I saw his face as he was leaving in the motorcade... he was not happy."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How slick do we look? On our way to Japan?
A couple of fuses blind leaves on a commercial flight
and the rest get left behind in P and G
for the night before they go to Brisbane, before they
get picked up and taken to Tokyo. Our political letters
to Jason Wall has drawn this political short straw enders
with us. Jason, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Make What time is it in P and G?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I just went three am.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Okay, look, so fourteen past three? And what'd you do
last night? Where do you stay in P and G
when you're stuck?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh? Listen, mane. I couldn't tell you where we are.
We're in some hotel in P and G. It's quite nice.
Basically it was headed down to the entire time while
we tried to figure out what was going on. I
couldn't tell you which way is up at this stage
because there were so many different changes to the plan.
All I know is that we're up. We're leaving from
P and G to go to Brisbane in a couple

(00:51):
of hours before getting an a New Zealand plane that's
been diverted from New Zealand to Brisbane before going to Japan.
So yeah, there's still a lot of unanswered questions as
to what's going on here, but we're slowly inching our
way towards Japan.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
You are on the seven five seven from p Andng
to Brisbane.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Well, at this stage that's the plan. I mean, anything
can happen. We could get to the airport and they
could tell us something else has gone wrong. So I'm
not holding out much hope given what happened yesterday, But
that is the plane of the stage.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
How did yesterday unfold? Is there a sense of panic
or upset or angle or fury or resignation or depression.
What's the vibe when this unfolds.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, there's always a sort of a slight glimmer of hope.
We were initially told that there was something that was
wrong that was only going to take an hour, and
then we thought, okay, that's fine, but this is about
my third or fourth breakdown, so I kind of I
kind of had a whop something else was going on.
And at one point we saw the Prime Minister's delegation
go up to the plane and so we thought, oh,

(01:52):
everything's fine, they're getting back on, and then they grabbed
all their gear and left, and by this point, nobody
had told us what was going on. So seeing them
all having their gear and leaving and then getting into
the Prime Minister's convoy and then leaving the airport was
quite the head scratcher because at that point we hadn't
really been told what was going on, and then from
there we were basically just given rolling updates every hour

(02:13):
or so that something has gone on or something has broken.
And then here we are.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Like a shag on a rock. Does is there not
a point person? I mean does the Prime Minister surely
goes to the Business delegation and goes, guys, once again,
this is embarrassing. I'm so sorry, I'm leaving for Japan.
Let's get you up there as quickly as does he
not say anything to anybody?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Well, I'm not sure how it played out with the
Business delegation. We were all in the same room with
them in this holding area in the p ANDNG airport
and they were getting about as much information as we were.
It was all going through fran Dame Therese Walsh, who
is the lead of the business delegation here, and she'd
be ushered into a room to be told what was
going on, But the Prime Minister leaving took everybody by surprise.

(02:57):
I mean I saw his face in his the side
profile of his face as he was leaving in the motorcade,
and he looked dark. He was not happy with what
was going on, because obviously he said on your show
this time yesterday that no spots or maybe so the
Defense Force plane is going to get to Japan. And
obviously that hasn't happened.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
No, it has not. So in New Zealand, divert to Brisbane,
they pick you up and the textpayer picks up the
tab to get you into Tokyo. All things going well,
When do you land in Japan?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
All things going well? About eight thirty pm tonight is
what we're told.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay, and then he'll carry on and do his thing
in the business delegation. We'll look to do whatever that way.
How long are you there for?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, we're only there till a Thursday, and that's then
when the big supports part of this trip is happening.
That's when he's meeting with President Kashita. And there's the
various different political elements of the trip. There are a few.
The thing is, we're not missing any big set pieces today.
There is a few sort of visits and various different
openings of things and MoU to be signed. So it's

(04:01):
not the end of the world. We actually still get
there for the big Prime minister. It's a Prime minister
meeting on Thursday. But it's still you know, a national
embarrassment for this to happen yet.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Again, Yes it is. We'll talk to the go well, Jason,
I wish you all the very best of luck. Seven
five seven to Brisbane. So he's going in completely the
wrong direction of course before in New Zealand' sweep across
and pick him up. And I'm when it's say him,
it's the whole media delegation. It's the business delegation. Isn't
that story about lux and unusual? Wouldn't you, as the
leader of the delegation go to the business people. You
know you got Greg Fum there, You've got Peter Beck

(04:31):
of Rocket Lab. For God's sake, wouldn't you go and
go look? You know how embarrassing anyway. For more from
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