Three of New Zealand's nine navy ships are sitting idle in port as defence personnel leave the force for better salaries.

The HMNZS Wellington returned to Aoteroa from a planned fisheries patrol operation in Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu a month early this year.

The offshore patrol vessel joined HMNZS Otago and HMNZS Hawea in port meaning three of New Zealand's navy ships are now sitting unused.

In a briefing of 'high' importance to the defence minister, Chief of Defence Force Air Marshall Kevin Short said the move would free up engineering personnel as workforce attrition impacted ship availability to deliver naval outputs.

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"Changes to the Navy fleet programme, resulting from placing a ship into care and custody, will consolidate the workforce and allow better management of the effects of attrition."

Short sought agreement to park HMNZS Wellington from September 2022 to "assist the Navy in managing attrition and enable a focus on the regeneration of the workforce, while continuing to deliver outputs domestically and in the Pacific region".

He advised remuneration was a key factor identified as a reason defence personnel are leaving, and the Defence Force was looking to pay retention bonuses to strategically significant trades where a clear linkage exists between attrition and output failure.

The briefing noted patrol vessel HMNZS Manawanui remained on the fisheries patrol operation until its completion in October 2022.