Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The prime minister has unleashed on his coalition partner Winston Peters, saying he was the person who put Dame Jacinda Ardern in charge of the country.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s The Country, Christopher Luxon shot back at Peters, who earlier told RNZ he should have been given a heads-up about Tuesday’s vote of confidence at National’s caucus meeting.
Luxon has accused his foreign affairs minister of trying to “scaremonger” and having an “anti-immigrant bias” within New Zealand First and his own belief system.
Peters described the vote of confidence as a bad move, unprecedented, and warned there will be further consequences.
‘Track record’
National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis also launched a broadside, saying he has a “track record of picking Labour over National, and that’s the risk you run with him”.
She took aim at her coalition partner after he earlier told RNZ Luxon was wrong to not warn him of Tuesday’s motion of confidence under the no-surprises clause in the coalition agreement.
The comments from both senior ministers on RNZ’s Morning Report signalled the election campaign has well and truly begun, with Willis also saying Peters was “mischief-making”.
This comes after Luxon took the extraordinary move of calling a motion of confidence in himself at Tuesday’s caucus meeting, following intense media speculation about his position.
While he was successful, the prime minister refused to take questions about it afterwards or say if it was unanimous.
Asked on Morning Report if he should have been warned ahead of the vote, NZ First leader, Winston Peters, said: “It would have been wise to yes, of course.”
“In plain ambit of human relations and cooperation, the answer is of course, yes.”
Peters, whose parliamentary career began in the 1970s, said it was an “unprecedented” move from a sitting prime minister, and not one he supported.
“Because you see, you can tell when the next one’s going to happen. Not initiated by himself, but by others, and just wait for the next round of polls. And that’s the sad thing.
“I mean, this is unprecedented… there are going to be consequences. They’re seriously predictable consequences. But what I was astonished by was that they didn’t seem to understand, sadly, what they were doing. And here we are, part of the coalition, where stability of government all the way to the 2026 election and beyond is the critical component. And this is not helpful.”
Finance Minister Nicola Willis says markets have reacted positively to the ceasefire news, with crude oil prices falling and global equities up, at a press conference on 8 April 2026. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Asked if he was essentially telling the National Party – which unlike NZ First, has been sliding in the polls – to get its act together, Peters said: “Well, you’ve phrased it that way, but I don’t disagree with you.”
Peters said a leadership spill would not have voided the NZ First-National coalition agreement, but that it would need to be “reshaped” – and warned National MPs against trying it again.
“You don’t sit here with all your responsibilities without looking at possible scenarios playing out and looking at every alternative. And if it’s like an octopus, the decision-making conclusion’s like an octopus with eight legs – you better understand all eight possible legs, not just three of them, five of them… You’ve got too many people with too little experience giving their views about what the outcome should be. That’s tragic.
Peters said it was important the government get back to the basics of governing “as fast as possible”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
