announced the MH-60R Seahawks were NZ\u2019s preferred option <\/a>to replace the existing maritime helicopters. These are the same helicopters used by Australia. <\/p>\n\u201cWe know that they fit on the frigates,\u201d Collins said on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that our pilots, they could fly the Australian ones if we need to. The Australians can fly ours if we need to. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes a lot of sense, if we can afford it, to in many cases, buy the same as them. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t. Sometimes it\u2019s best if we do something complimentary.\u201d <\/p>\n
Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia is set to acquire up to five Virginia-class nuclear-power submarines from the United States in the early 2030s. <\/p>\n
Asked how New Zealand may work alongside those subs, given our country\u2019s general nuclear-free sentiment, Collins said that was a \u201chypothetical\u201d for now. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not in that situation right at the moment … I think people would need to consider it.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Australian]()
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said her country was not taking offensive action against Iran. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Conflict in the Middle East <\/p>\n
The annual meeting came as war continues in the Middle East, after the United States and Israel\u2019s strikes on Iran and the Iranian regime\u2019s retaliatory attacks on neighbouring countries which host US bases. <\/p>\n
Collins said neither New Zealand nor Australia have \u201cmuch information\u201d and neither country had received any \u201crequests for help\u201d from the United States. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously there\u2019s limitations on what we can provide anyway, so any decisions like that would have to go through Cabinet and whatever it is, it\u2019s got to be in New Zealand\u2019s best interest,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
If such a request was to emerge, Collins said she\u2019d expect New Zealand and Australia would co-ordinate closely. <\/p>\n
Australia has sent an E-7A Wedgetail plane to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) \u201cto help protect and defend Australians and other civilians\u201d, said Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong. <\/p>\n
This was \u201cin support of the collective self-defence of Gulf nations\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Albanese Government has been clear that we are not taking offensive action against Iran and we have been clear that we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.\u201d <\/p>\n
With Collins having announced her retirement from politics, the meeting in Canberra will be one of her last international engagements. <\/p>\n
She said she had been \u201coverwhelmed by how incredibly positive and friendly\u201d people had been. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was enjoying it so much yesterday that I had this terrible urge to say, \u2018look, I\u2019m only kidding, guys, I\u2019m staying\u2019, but that\u2019s how friendly we are with each other, but I didn\u2019t do that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Collins said she believed \u201cthis is probably the best relationship we\u2019ve seen between Australia and New Zealand, at a political level, that we\u2019ve ever seen\u201d. <\/p>\n
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The minister has been in Canberra for annual meetings with her Australian counterpart, as well as alongside the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57097,78459,85,82716,10001,36177,7236,16639,1403,127,56614,5760,51928,14735,42445,5812,6722,117,111,43,139,69,1523,2341,179568,312,22476,6100,45666,1533,102,15146,80],"class_list":["post-334940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-57097","tag-anzac","tag-australia","tag-capable","tag-closer","tag-collins","tag-combat","tag-decisions","tag-defence","tag-despite","tag-engagements","tag-force","tag-increasingly","tag-integrated","tag-judith","tag-make","tag-minister","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-personnel","tag-reassures","tag-says","tag-sovereign","tag-still","tag-ties","tag-will","tag-with","tag-works","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}