A challenge is being made to claims of openness and transparency about the military's Iraq deployment.

Speaking on TVNZ's Q + A show Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Tim Keating has denied there being any secrecy around deployment plans.

OPINION: Seeds of mistrust

The government has come under fire in recent months after it was revealed by Australian media that NZ troops were in Australia on pre-deployment training. NewstalkZB broke the news last week that a number of troops were leaving for Iraq already.

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark disputes this, saying the Government has been anything but open about the mission, and he's seeing a totally different attitude from NZDF.

"This is a totally different approach to the last chief of the Defence Force, Jerry Mataparae, who looked for more openness and more transparency around deployments, specifically with the SAS. We seem to be flipping and flopping within the NZDF."

Labour Leader Andrew Little's airing his concerns about how the government's managing the Iraq troop deployment.

The pending training mission is set to be discussed by our Prime Minister and his Australian counterpart, Tony Abbott, when they meet in Wellington today.

Little has his reservations about the way it's been presented to the public.

"One of the big fears that we all had is that it looked like some sort of sentimental throwback to ANZAC sentiment from 100 years ago, and it shouldn't be that."

New Zealand joins a number of other countries in sending military and humanitarian aid to Iraq in the fight against the Islamic State group which has taken control of vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.