PM Respectfully Declines New Zealand’s Offer To Gift Him A $7400 Gyrocopter For His Own Personal Use

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has politely declined a generous trans-Tasman offer from the New Zealand Government to accept a second-hand gyrocopter once used by a Central Otago grazier for checking fence lines and mustering slow sheep.

The aircraft, a 1998 model Cavalon valued at $7400 NZD and reportedly stored in a lean-to next to an old grey Fergie tractor, was recently donated to the New Zealand Government by Mr Dougal McTavish, an 83-year-old sheep and cattle farmer from Clyde who has now “hung up the goggles.”

“I’ve had a good run in her, but the eyes are going and the wife reckons I’m a menace,” McTavish told Radio New Zealand.

With no clear aviation program to reassign the vehicle to, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s government reportedly offered the gyrocopter to their Australian counterparts as a gesture of diplomatic goodwill.

Sources close to the Office of the Prime Minister say the offer was well-received, but ultimately knocked back due to concerns about maintenance, insurance and the very real risk of Albanese flying himself into powerlines on the way to Copacabana.

“We appreciate the gift but it’s probably best left in a paddock somewhere near Lake Dunstan,” said a spokesperson for the Prime Minister.

While the aircraft is unpressurised, can only fly in clear conditions and tops out at 40 knots with a tailwind, the Kiwi Government hoped it might “make it easier for the Aussie PM to get from Canberra to the Central Coast,” said one diplomat.

The gyrocopter will now be returned to the Otago Museum of Agricultural Transport, where it will sit alongside a completely fucked post hole digger and a first-generation Hilux.

More to come.