Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr says he intends to sue New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters over controversial remarks made on radio this morning as the debate over AUKUS in the country descends into personal attacks.
After he delivered a foreign policy speech last night, Mr Peters was being interviewed about New Zealand's position on AUKUS when he levelled specific allegations at Mr Carr in relation to his closeness with China.
Wires services and local media chose not to republish the comments, but one remark has since been repeated in New Zealand Question Time under parliamentary privilege.
Mr Carr's office confirmed to the ABC he is taking legal action.
Earlier in the day, Radio NZ reported Mr Carr — who was also premier of New South Wales for 10 years — said he considered the comments to be "entirely defamatory".
Mr Peters is the deputy prime minister of New Zealand, as well as the foreign minister and leader of NZ First, one of the three parties that make up the country's coalition government.
The opposition is now calling for him to be stood down.
New Zealand is debating whether it should involve itself in pillar two of AUKUS, which concerns developing and sharing advanced technologies.
Mr Carr shared his criticisms of the US-led pact on a visit to Wellington in April.
On Wednesday night, Mr Peters gave a major foreign policy speech at parliament, where he said New Zealand was yet to consider collaboration on pillar two as it had not been invited.
Mr Peters followed up with a round of interviews on Thursday morning where he was asked about Mr Carr's criticism, launching an extraordinary broadside.
"What on Earth does he think he's doing walking into our country and telling us what to do? We would no more do that in Australia than he should do here. That's the kind of arrogance we don't like," Mr Peters told Radio NZ.
Radio NZ has also edited its clip of the interview to remove the section of that contains the potentially defamatory remarks.
In a statement today, Mr Carr said "Mr Peters is trying to sell New Zealanders a reversal of their non-nuclear principles."
"This is a 30-year policy that has been supported by both sides of New Zealand politics."
Calls for Peters to be stood down
Former prime minister and now Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins said Mr Peters had "embarrassed the country" with his remarks about Mr Carr.
"The allegations that he has made against Bob Carr — a senior and well-respected Australian politician — are totally unacceptable," he said.
"The fact that you've now got someone like Bob Carr taking defamation action against Winston Peters is embarrassing for New Zealand, it shows that Winston Peters has abused his office as minister of foreign affairs and this now becomes a problem for the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
"He should stand Winston Peters down immediately."
Mr Hipkins said Mr Peters "cannot execute his duties as foreign affairs minister with this hanging over him".
"He's embarrassed the country. He's created legal risk to the New Zealand government," he said.
Mr Luxon said while he would not have said similarly, Mr Peters was "doing an exceptional job" as foreign minister.
"I'm sure Bob Carr as a seasoned politician understands the rough and tumble of politics," he said.
The ABC has contacted Winston Peters for comment but is yet to receive a response.
In New Zealand Question Time today, he was asked if he stood by "his criticism of AUKUS critics, including his statement about the honourable Bob Carr that, quote, 'he is nothing more than a Chinese puppet'?"
Mr Peters responded: "Yes, particularly those comments that highlighted the fact that critics don't know what they don't know regarding the strategic challenges New Zealand faces," he said.
While under parliamentary privilege, he then said "as for Bob Carr, it appears we've been late to the party" and held up a printed version of an Australian Financial Review article from 2018 and read its headline aloud, saying: "How Bob Carr became China's pawn".
In a statement today, Mr Carr pointed to lines in his address to a Labour-led AUKUS forum in Wellington last month.
"In that speech, along with my valid criticisms of AUKUS, I said: 'Australia is entitled to challenge China, to press back against China's influence-building in the South Pacific'," the statement read.
"But on AUKUS I say that $368 billion is the biggest transfer of wealth outside of Australia that has ever happened in our history and, with the retirement of the Collin's class, we could be left in the 2030s with no sovereign submarine capacity."
New Zealand and AUKUS
New Zealand passed legislation in the 1980s making the country a nuclear-free zone, so when the AUKUS deal was announced, there was little chance the country would look to join pillar one.
But there has been robust debate in the country as to whether it should join pillar two of the pact and how that would impact the independence of New Zealand's foreign policy.
That second pillar of the pact will see those powers develop and share advanced military capabilities, including cyber and AI-powered technologies, and hypersonic weaponry.
Japan last month and South Korea on Wednesday confirmed their interest in pillar two, with Canada and New Zealand mooted as possible members.
In his foreign policy speech on Wednesday night, Mr Peters said Australia, the United Kingdom and US had not decided whether they wanted New Zealand involved.
"There is one crucial precondition and one consequential decision required before New Zealand could or would participate in pillar two," he said.
"AUKUS partners need to want us to participate in pillar two and invite us to do so.
"That precondition has not yet been met, which is why we are exploring with our traditional partners the scope of pillar two and seeking a much more detailed understanding of what this involves."
ABC/AAP
