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- Date published:
11:01 am, April 30th, 2026 - 23 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, national, nz first, same old national, winston peters -
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Looks like Luxon has started to grow a spine and has stood up to Winston Peters for once.
The context is a release of emails to an OIA request by Peters’ office suggesting he talked Luxon out of explicit support for America’s attack on Iran. The emails are clearly sensitive and should not have been released.
The fact they were may have been due to oversight or mistake, or may have been an attempt by Peters to ratfuck Luxon.
Luxon responded by summonsing Peters for a dressing down and then published what had happened.
Radio New Zealand has the details.
From Jo Moir at Radio New Zealand:
The Prime Minister says he called Winston Peters to his Beehive office on Wednesday night where he told him he expected better political judgement from his foreign minister.
Christopher Luxon said his coalition partner “acknowledged he had made a mistake” during that meeting after Peters’ office released discussions between the pair to the NZ Herald following an Official Information Act request.
The political spat between the two leaders broke out over the release of emails that show Luxon within days of the US-Israel war in Iran starting, wanting to move the Government’s position to showing “explicit public support” for the US.
But Luxon’s office said the emails released only show Peters’ office’s characterisation of the Prime Minister’s views.
“These emails mischaracterise the PM’s position. As you’d expect, it is the PM’s job to always challenge the advice he receives and, in this case, he sought to test New Zealand’s position against that of Canada and Australia,” a spokesperson for Luxon said in a statement to RNZ.
“The public statements made by the Government reflect the PM’s position. If they didn’t, they would not have been made.
“We were surprised to see Winston Peters’ office release internal discussions like these to the media, as our office was not consulted on this.
“The decision to release these discussions to the media clearly put politics ahead of the national interest.
“The PM would expect Mr Peters to show better judgement after more than 40 years in politics.”
Thomas Coughlan at the Herald has indicated the parties are in crisis discussions.
And Helen Clark thinks we could be facing an early election.
This Herald article contains this quote:
They’re eating each other. It’s clear that Winston Peters is taking a lot of the National Party’s vote.
Right now, I couldn’t look you in the eye and say I thought that the … Government would last till the 7th of November.
They may stagger on, but it’s going to be increasingly fractious with less and less agreement internally.”
Meanwhile Nicola Willis continued to display her incredible dexterity in her use of the English language by stating that this was another silly debate about nothing and contrary to the proof otherwise said that NZ First and National wanted a strong stable government.
Stay tuned. The possibility of a snap election just increased even more.
Luxon says…
I wonder what Peters says about last night's meeting.
In any case, neither can be believed.
The public will not find it difficult to believe that Luxon intended to declare his whole-hearted support for Trump's bombing of Iran, no matter how desperately Chris Bishop muddies the water.
I miss Helen.
To think that we once had a PM who spoke clearly and strongly, with authority and insight – and still does. Imagine Luxon doing that 18 years after leaving office. Imagine him doing it ever.
Me too ; Was good to see her on Breakfast TV this morning.
I want the Coalition to snap out of it, not to snap before 7th November. Luxon won’t call a snap defeat when National is polling so badly in favour of NZ First unless he has a brain like a Swiss cheese.
Holy?
Holy and crumbles under the slightest pressure.
Incompatible with butter chicken.
So, well within the realms of possibility – Luxon has no political judgment.
The only way he could call a snap election is if caucus doesn't hear about it first. In the Beehive rumour mill that's unlikely.
As soon as National MPs hear it's on the cards, they'll have a snap election of their own.
Winston might actually hold the trump card and force a snap election.
Isn't the standard rule that the party that forces the voter to an early election, is punished more heavily at the ballot box?
I think so but if one first creates a wedge issue then the outcome may be beneficial. Winston is a wedge master.
National has a folio-full of dirty politics to deploy in order to stay in power which would be wasted if Luxon acted prematurely – there will be no snap election.
Danyl McLauchlan makes similar points.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/politics/shock-treatment-danyl-mclauchlan-on-luxons-polycrisis/premium/Z2JUKEDE5FCXDOPKEB4FNMOJKE/?
"The term polycrisis was popularised by economic historian Adam Tooze to describe the systems of overlapping shocks – environmental, economic, political – characterising life in the 21st century. The essence of the polycrisis is not that bad things are happening at once, it’s that they amplify each other, creating outcomes that are worse than the sum of their parts.
On April 21, Wellington woke to drowned streets, power outages, ominous inflation data, declining fuel stocks and another series of skirmishes in the prolonged cold war inside the National Party. These culminated in Christopher Luxon calling for a vote of confidence in his leadership, which his caucus duly awarded him."
I would have waited until Budget had gone through Cabinet, then shankedLuxon.
Lock in your portfolios funding first, then unleash electoral dogs.
Otherwise Willis can avenge her leader.
This story changes every few minutes.
David Seymour is on RNZ before 1 pm saying Winston admits he got it wrong.
Winston Peters: "No I didn't".
Foreign Minister Winston Peters denies he made a mistake releasing emails showing PM wanted explicit Iran war backing – NZ Herald
The PM's office claimed that Winston said he'd got it wrong.
We will hear more about that claim 🙂
Jenna Lynch has a decent summary here. But yet again, like most of our political reporters, she is unwilling to take the next step. To spell out the obvious conclusion of her own logic.
If the PM is so hopeless that he needs to be fed a line that he can remember, and is unable to articulate his position on a war that affects the whole planet, then why on earth is he in the job? And why keep pretending that he is up to it?
Make no mistake, Winston Peters’ email release embarrassing PM was not a mistake at all | Stuff
So the PM, and the man who made him PM, have both described the position of the other and then rejected it in turn.
This leaves two strawmen facing one another, unless one is telling the truth and the other is not.
An alternative theory is based on their occupation as politicians – you canna trust a thing coming from the Commons and its daughter parliaments.
For a hundred years or more, blasphemy law in a land with no religion, prayer from the Speaker as if the Crown of the state church of England was listening – trust no Crown where a Sassenach is head of a church. They'll come for the land of the indigenous people – the godless heathen.
Holyrood, where dissent is honest and patriotic
(declaration a wee bit of the north of the border Reiver land clan in origins)
All I see in this is the air of entitlement and avoidance of political embarrassment that results in the abuse of the Official Information Act over so many information requests of government.
Yep they released emails that had already been written. Why are they so upset?
I've watched for 2 years as Minister after Minister breaches Ministerial Conduct, abuses Kiwi workers, lies, attacks judiciary, calls females "bitches" etc & Luxon defends it each time.
Now Winston threatens Luxon and made him look bad, he hauled WP in to 'scold' him – i.e the only time he acts is in self interest. The real winner here is Winston however, because Luxon is too weak to do anything else.
maybe labour could learn from the dirty cocs, every time the left is in the nats constantly hunt ministers down and labour willingly delivers their heads on a spike.