Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaks to media from Samoa.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he is incredibly saddened and shocked at the violent death of a female passenger on an Auckland bus who died in a random stabbing.
“They were just going about their everyday life, that could have been anyone in New Zealand,” Luxon said.
“That shouldn’t happen in New Zealand. We need to think again about what more we could be doing.”
Luxon made the comments while addressing media in Samoa, where he arrived earlier today alongside his wife Amanda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
Asked about woman’s death in Onehunga yesterday, Luxon said: “I just want to acknowledged the victim ... and their loved ones ... who will be in a state of absolute shock.”
Luxon is set to meet a series of world leaders, including United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer in what will be the pair’s first bilateral meeting.
King Charles will also, for the first time, attend the meeting this year.
Luxon said he would be discussing issues around the Ukraine war and the Middle East when he met with Starmer.
He said CHOGM was a “rather unique body” with 56 countries and 2.5 billion people represented.
Luxon said as a result, leaders were presented with quite a different set of issues.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has arrived in Apia, Samoa. Photo / Jason Walls
On the Manawanui sinking, Luxon said he was getting up to four briefings a day on the incident.
What had been really impressive was how the Samoan and New Zealand teams were working together constructively, he said.
Accounts of what happened the night of the sinking from the rescued crew were “harrowing” and challenging.
Getting 75 people off the ship without anyone losing their life was “a big deal”.
On the topic of New Zealand becoming a republic, Luxon said New Zealand was focused on “some other things”.
He said he was a “soft republican”.
On the Samoan Citizenship bill passing its second reading, Luxon said it was important the bill was contained to those people born between 1924 and 1949.
As a result, all the political parties then came on board to support it.
One topic of conversation that is set to be discussed is the sunken New Zealand Navy ship that currently lies off the coast of Samoa.
HMNZS Manawanui, a specialist survey and dive support vessel, struck a reef on the evening of Saturday, October 5.
Back in New Zealand, Samoa was also a big topic at Parliament today with Green MP Teanau Tuiono’s Samoan citizenship bill passing its second reading.
If it ultimately passes, Tuiono’s bill would mean a person whose New Zealand citizenship was removed by the 1982 law would be eligible for citizenship as of right, instead of having to go through the standard residency and citizenship application process.
Labour’s Barbara Edmonds spoke about the close – but at times a tragic – relationship between New Zealand and Samoa.
She also spoke about the sunken Manawanui, saying the Government needed to take action to fix the situation and ensure “we do not trample on the friendship again and right that wrong”.
“I acknowledged that there is work being done, but please listen to the Samoan people on the ground, please listen to the villagers who cannot fish, please listen to the villagers who cannot put food on their families’ table.”
Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.
