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Welcome to Inside Politics. It was only a few weeks ago that I was sitting in Winston Peters’ office, marvelling at his discipline as Deputy Prime Minister and how there had not been a cigarette paper between his public utterances and those of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on anything.
Clearly, my judgment was premature. Differences between the two leaders were laid bare in the past week over Donald Trump’s tariff turmoil and New Zealand’s response to it.
There are two distinct issues at stake: the failings that led to public differences, which are clear, and what New Zealand’s response should be, which is debatable.
The first big failure belongs to Luxon. It is outrageous that he did not consult his Foreign Minister before making an important speech and phone calls to a bunch of leaders about what happens next.
Luxon used a well-worn technique to dismiss the criticism by exaggerating the criticism: “I don’t expect to be consulted on every single decision, every single speech of any given minister, and I certainly don’t plan to run my speeches past every other minister as well.”
Nobody has suggested he should do that; just the one minister, the one responsible for international relations.
It would be unthinkable that Luxon would make a major speech on next steps in education without consulting Erica Stanford, or a speech on a new transport initiative without talking to Chris Bishop.
The next big failure belongs to Peters in publicly airing his discontent the same day Luxon made his speech, then the next day, and then two days later in a formal speech in the United States on Peters’ Pacific tour. There are clear differences between him and Luxon that should not have been shared on an international stage. Airing them is not in New Zealand’s interests. And by the way, Peters should have done Luxon the courtesy of sending him his Honolulu speech in advance. [UPDATE: Winston Peters’ office has clarified that his Honolulu speech was given to Luxon’s office in advance]. But by this point, someone senior in either National or New Zealand First should have banged their heads together on a Zoom call.
Instead, the PM reverted to his default flannelling, suggesting it was just a media beat-up and there are no differences.
Like Trump’s America First ethos of the US as a victim, New Zealand First has a tendency to allow perceived slights to fester and to see itself as a victim.
There have been fundamental failures and there are fundamental differences between the parties on free trade itself and how to handle the tariff turmoil. It is an inflection point in the three-way coalition that could damage relationships and impact on their re-election. This is not a media beat-up. Just look at the sequence of statements below.
Christopher Luxon:
“As Prime Minister, I have a responsibility to do everything I can to both bolster the existing rules-based order and to further strengthen New Zealand’s position offshore ... It’s why I will be on the phone later today to world leaders comparing notes on world trade and testing what we can do together to buttress the rules-based trading system ... Free trade works. It lifts incomes. It creates jobs. It builds partnerships. And it secures peace. I think that’s worth fighting for – and I’m up for that fight.” – April 10 speech
Winston Peters:
“This is all very premature ... I’ve taken the stance that experience matters. In this case, wait until we see what emerges with the tariff war that’s going on.” – April 10
“He didn’t check it out when he made that speech and made those phone calls. And so I hope that he’ll get my message and he’ll call me next time.” – April 11
“The use of military language – of a ‘trade war’, of the need to ‘fight’, of the imperative to form alliances in order to oppose the actions of one country – has at times come across as hysterical and short-sighted.” – April 13 speech
“We will continue to promote careful, pragmatic, quiet dialogue, aimed at de-escalation and practical problem solving, rather than premature posturing.” –April 13 speech
Luxon:
“That’s a real media beat-up, that story. Because, actually, if you think about what he’s actually saying, we’re saying the same thing, which is that we’ve been pretty cool, calm and collected in responding to this thing.” – April 14
Part of Winston Peters’ speech in Honolulu reiterated previous calls by him for the US to remain engaged in the Pacific. The speech engaged in some dubious nostalgia about New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy and Anzus rift of the 1980s, and all but apologised for the apparent bad manners back then: “Close friends do not need to be, and should not be, confrontational and rude with one another, as New Zealand sometimes was towards the United States in the mid-to-late 1980s.”
In a part of the speech, perhaps invoking former Prime Minister Helen Clark and her cohorts, Peters said: “We also recall certain protesters, in New Zealand and across the Indo-Pacific, chanting ‘Yankees Go Home!’ during the rancorous days of the late 1960s. Some of those protesters chanted those words perhaps unaware that, just a few decades earlier, their parents and grandparents had been praying that the Americans would arrive to save them.”
The trouble with Peters’ misty-eyed view of the US is that it belongs in the past; Trump has trashed the traditional playbook. Alliances no longer matter. He is embarking on a dangerous path of decoupling the currently interdependent economies of the US and China. The rest of the world is collateral. There are no favours for friends.
Richard L. Armitage, a former US Deputy Secretary of State and a great friend of New Zealand, has died of a pulmonary embolism, aged 79. Armitage was deeply involved in the suspension of New Zealand from Anzus in the 1980s when he was Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security under President Ronald Reagan. He was also involved in the diplomatic thaw undertaken when Helen Clark was Prime Minister. I got to interview him in 2007 when he was in Auckland for a US-New Zealand leadership dialogue and he gave real insights into why New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position mattered so much to the US.
“One message we carried to Washington DC was that New Zealand wants, indeed needs, for the United States to remain an active, engaged and constructive partner in the Indo-Pacific. Our discussions here in Honolulu over the next few days are designed to reinforce that message.” – Winston Peters’ speech on Sunday
What two countries will Christopher Luxon visit next week? (Answer below.)
Goes to David Seymour for suggesting that Willie Jackson had run from a TV political debate on the Treaty Principles Bill “like diarrhoea”. He later changed it to “dysentery”. Both are gross.
Goes to Veterans Minister Chris Penk for getting agreement to expand the official definition of “veteran” to reflect the reality of their service, not some arcane bureaucratic rule.
Health plan: The Government has released a new 10-year, $20 billion plan for reviving the country’s ageing health infrastructure.
OPINION – US tariffs: Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters have been feuding about NZ’s response to new US trade tariffs from three different countries, writes Thomas Coughlan.
OPINION – US tariffs: No one knows where Donald Trump’s economic lunacy will lead, writes Matthew Hooton. The priority for New Zealand is not making it worse.
Nash plans: Former Labour MP Stuart Nash isn’t ruling out running for NZ First at the next election.
Crime claim: The Government claims it has already surpassed a key target to reduce the number of victims of violent crime.
ANALYSIS – crime claim: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith was curiously cautious when talking up the latest crime statistics, writes Derek Cheng.
Facial recognition tech: Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is backing the use of facial recognition software to prevent shoplifting, despite serious privacy concerns.
RBNZ funding: The Reserve Bank will have its funding dramatically reduced over the next five years under a new deal with the Government.
Tourism funding: The Government is pumping $13.5 million into Tourism New Zealand to encourage more international visitors to travel to Aotearoa.
Licencing overhaul: The Government wants to scrap the practical test needed to attain a full licence and reduce the number of eyesight tests to allow more people to become qualified drivers.
Quiz answer: Britain and Turkey (for Anzac Day).
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