Labour echoes a view that faulty Defence Force planes are embarrassing

The Air Force's Boeing 757 never left the ground yesterday due to a technical fault with the nose landing gear.

It meant Chris Luxon had to fly commercially to Melbourne, where he was heading for ASEAN talks, missing a couple of meetings due to the delay.

Labour's Ginny Andersen says upgrading the fleet's one of those unpopular, but neccessary decisions.

She says it gets to the point where it's just embarrassing, and the Prime Minister missing meetings isn't okay.

Andersen says it's not fair on Luxon to not have the support - and it's a bad look for New Zealand.