Andrew Dickens Afternoons

The cost of having a baby when you are the Prime Minister will weigh heavily on the taxpayer this week - around about $100,000. Newstalk ZB Political editor Barry Soper told Andrew Dickens the RNZAF VIP jet will fly back from Nauru to pick up Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday to take her to the Pacific Islands Forum.Ardern's cut short her time at the forum because to take her baby would have required giving her a number of vaccinations.The media contingent left the country this morning with Foreign Minister Winston Peters on the same jet, and it will return and collect Ardern on a separate trip.  Based on fuel prices from two years ago - the cost to fly the jet to and from Nauru would be just over a hundred thousand dollars, but in the past year fuel's risen by 20 percent. Ardern will miss tonight's opening ceremony and tomorrow's formal dialogue - but will get to the leaders' retreat on Wednesday and attend a banquet before flying out at close to midnight.The Forum's opening ceremony is tonight, but Ardern will on