Source: Radio New Zealand
VNP / Phil Smith
The Prime Minister’s office says it has no evidence to back Christopher Luxon’s claim that Winston Peters micharacterised his view of the Iran War.
Luxon had personally declined to offer such evidence, instead pointing to public government statements reflecting the official view.
RNZ requested under the OIA “any additional documentation that can be provided outlining more clearly the prime minister’s view, and to support the contention that he was merely wanting to test New Zealand’s position against that of Canada and Australia”.
“This includes any record of the DPMC request the emails themselves were responding to.”
Luxon’s office referred the latter part of the request to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, but said the remaining information simply did not exist.
“As concerns the remainder of your request, searches of this office’s information holdings have located no relevant emails. I am therefore refusing your request under section 18(e) of the Act, as the information requested does not exist.”
The response restated – without evidence – that Peters’ release of emails had mischaracterised the PM’s position, saying it was his job “to always challenge the advice he receives and, in this case, he sought to test New Zealand’s position against those of Canada and Australia”.
Luxon’s office also referred RNZ to Hansard – the official transcript of Parliament – for 3 March, during which the prime minister stated New Zealand’s official position on the war which would “acknowledge” but not explicitly support the war.
However, this was the day after Luxon had struggled to clearly articulate the government’s position during a post-Cabinet media briefing, which had followed the discussions with Peters’ office about what that position should be.
The dispute between the pair made headlines late last month after Peters’ office released under the Official Information Act two emails showing MFAT staff discussing Luxon’s “preference for more explicit support of the US’ action” in launching assaults on Iran in late February.
That assault led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting fuel crisis.
The emails showed MFAT staff discussing how Peters, the Foreign Minister, did not wish to move towards explicit support like Australia and Canada had expressed – seeing value “from a foreign policy perspective, in walking the careful line we established yesterday … which neither condemns nor gives explicit support”.
Luxon was outraged by the emails’ impending release and – the night before they were made public – went to Peters’ office to discuss the matter.
A statement from Luxon’s office later said Peters’ office had not consulted them, that the decision to release the emails “clearly put politics ahead of the national interest”, that after their discussion Peters had “acknowledged he made a mistake”, and that “the PM would expect Mr Peters to show better judgement after more than 40 years in politics”.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/no-evidence-to-back-luxons-claim-peters-mischaracterised-view-of-iran-pms-office-says/