Category: Politics

Source: Radio New Zealand

The finance minister will reveal “targeted and temporary” support for hard-hit families on Tuesday, as fuel costs continue to rise.

Nicola Willis gave notice of the announcement at Monday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones.

Jones also announced plans to align New Zealand’s fuel standards with that of Australia, allowing the import of fuel destined for Australia to New Zealand instead.

Willis said the decisions on support had been taken at Cabinet, and while some of the details were still being worked out, that would not affect how quickly families could get it.

“This conflict is impacting just about every New Zealander, it has pushed up the price of petrol, diesel and jet fuel and those increases are already hurting our people and our businesses. Unfortunately the government is not in a position to mitigate that impact on everyone,” she said.

“The approach we are taking is consistent with the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the response to the Covid pandemic, which highlighted the damage that can be done by untimely, untemporary and untargeted spending.”

It was unclear when the support would be rolled out, with Willis saying that would be made clear when it was announced.

Motorists should fuel up as and when they needed to, she said, with the government’s solution set to target income rather than fuel prices.

‘No concerns’ about fuel supply

For now, there were no concerns about fuel supplies in New Zealand, she said.

“To date, all shipments have arrived as scheduled and fuel importers have not raised any concerns about shipments that are due here in future.

“It remains the case that we have to be prepared for the possibility of disruptions in the medium to longer term, particularly because the refineries in Southeast Asia from which we import more than 90 percent of our fuel may have challenges getting the feedstock crude oil that they need.”

Luxon said the country had at least enough fuel for the next seven weeks, although the government was preparing in case of long-term further disruption.

“If you are someone who has just faced a 30 percent increase in your fuel bill or a 60 percent increase in your diesel bill since the actual crisis, since this conflict has commenced, it’s real.

“We cannot do the Covid learnings and mistakes, which was just spray a heap of money around that has short term gain but long term pain – massive long-term pain – and equally we’ve got to find a way to get people support in a temporary, targeted kind of way.

“The reality is that we are not going to be able to alleviate the pressure of rising prices for everyone, but what we’ve been clear about are the parameters for any support that we provide, which is that it must be targeted, it must be timely, and it must be temporary and not drive inflation or debt higher.”

The latest data from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment showed stocks for about 47 days of fuel, including about 50 days worth of petrol, 46 days of diesel, and 45 of jet fuel.

The data, accurate to last Wednesday, marks about two days fewer than was reported last week.

One new fuel shipment arrived on Sunday, and two more – carrying between them another 20 days of each kind of fuel – are expected to arrive in the next fortnight.

The next update is due on Wednesday, but the ministry says New Zealand is not yet experiencing the kind of sustained disruption that would justify emergency measures under the national fuel plan.

Luxon said nothing had changed about New Zealand’s position on the Iran conflict, but that Iranians “holding hostage a whole bunch of ships to bring fuel and critical supplies … that’s not acceptable”.

“What we want to see is a quick resolution to this conflict and that means that actually respecting civilians and civilian infrastructure is really important … we think the best thing is de-escalation.”

Willis confirmed some consideration had been given to which industries could be prioritised if fuel rationing was needed, but this would not be revealed until a later date.

“We will not be having to hit the button tomorrow, but we will outline what our proposed phasing of response is … we recognise that it’s useful for people to understand what could be coming under a range of scenarios,” she said.

She noted the high prices would also naturally limit fuel use.

“It is pinching people’s pockets already and that is changing people’s choices. So Auckland transport have reported they had their biggest day of public transport use in seven years, I think that’s people deciding to use their cars a little bit less because it’s pretty expensive right now.”

‘Anzac pact’ in fuel and other standards

Jones outlined the government’s plan to temporarily allow fuel that meets Australian specifications to be supplied to the New Zealand market for up to a year.

Fuel companies had said this could allow them to secure shipments more quickly, and from a wider pool of suppliers.

Jones said long-range vessels typically carried about 120 million litres, and New Zealand consumed about 24 million litres of fuel a day – with about 47 percent of that being diesel, about 35 percent being petrol, and the remainder being aviation fuel.

“Should such a vessel be on its way to Australia then we would have the ability to also benefit from such a vessel.”

He said fuel refined to Australian standards was compatible with New Zealand vehicles, and met safety and quality expectations, pushing back on the suggestion it would allow dirtier fuels than under current standards.

“It’s unkind of us to refer to our Aussie compatriots as dirty,” he said. “There’s two things – whether or not fuel used in a high-temperature northern Australian environment, we are advised that a lot of that fuel is suitable for the North Island … with the South Island the fuel importers assure us that they will have the optionality to service both of those markets.”

He said officials had spoken to Australian counterparts.

“We pushed the idea that at some point in time we should explore and ANZAC pact and I would say to you this is the first step that we’re taking to join forces.

“It’d be fair to say that I’ve got a fair degree of support in our Cabinet to actually move towards permanent harmonisation of not only these standards but a variety of other standards in the economy.”

Willis and the associate ministers of finance would make further improvements, he said.

The government would not follow Australia’s lead in relaxing standards to allow higher-sulphur fuel, he said, at least not yet.

“At this stage it’s not our intention to do so, however, we will take advice should the situation change – and that could be an option that expands our supply.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Analysis: Christopher Luxon’s personal performance and that of his party is worse, and more people think the country is headed in the wrong direction under his government.

Those are the bleak messages being sent by voters in the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll.

The poll has National on just 30.8 – only just scraping above the death knell threshold of anything with a 2 at the start of it.

For Luxon personally his preferred prime minister score is 17.3 – down from 19.4 in RNZ’s last poll in January.

While there’s been speculation in recent weeks off the back of another bad poll that Luxon’s time as leader could be running out, the RNZ-Reid Research poll doesn’t point to any obvious successors.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop only reached 0.6 percent – down from 1.3, while often tipped future leader and Education Minister Erica Stanford registered 1.4 percent, up slightly from 1.2 at the last poll. Not exactly threatening results.

For Luxon, however, it’s his net favourability – the difference between those who think he’s doing well and those who rate his performance badly – where things really take a dive.

The Prime Minister has a net favourability score of -20.6, even worse than the dismal result he got in the last poll of -14.

If it’s the economy that Luxon will turn to for a brighter outlook, it’s only bad news there too.

Half of respondents – 50 percent – now think the country is headed in the wrong direction under this coalition government, while just 32.3 think it’s headed the right way.

Compare that with January when 46.6 percent picked wrong direction versus 36.3 that picked right and it’s another public sentiment tracking the opposite way to what Luxon and his team would like.

It’s worth noting 72.6 percent of National voters felt the country was headed the right way but a much smaller number for Act – just 57.5 percent – and an even worse showing for New Zealand First – only 26.6 percent – paints a story of coalition supporters also feeling gloomy.

While the net figure for wrong and right direction has been dropping since the first RNZ-Reid Research poll in March 2025, it did lift slightly in the last poll in January, only to plunge to an even lower score this time round.

The grim warnings are hot on the back of another poll that had National on 28 percent.

The Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll that was published on March 6 was a catalyst for questions over Luxon’s leadership and speculation that grew so fevered he had to go on air at the last minute for an unscheduled interview to dampen it down.

On RNZ-Reid Research’s poll numbers Labour, New Zealand First and the Greens had a slight improvement on their party vote while everyone else suffered drops.

Labour has the biggest share with 35.6, while New Zealand First is on 10.6, the Greens 10.1, Act 7 and Te Pati Maori 3.2.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins was also down in his preferred prime minister rating, on 20.7, while his net favourability was comfortably ahead of Luxon’s on +0.3.

While this poll covers the period in which Hipkins was in the media denying a number of allegations made by his ex-wife, which she had posted to social media, at least half of those polled had already been counted before that story broke.

If this poll result played out on election night, both the centre-right and the centre-left blocs would get 60 seats – not enough to form a government, leaving a hung parliament.

It’s been a tough month for New Zealanders already suffering a years-long cost of living crisis, with spiking prices at the pump, at the supermarket, and on other services like flights.

The ongoing war in Iran and no end-date in sight has people feeling nervous about the months ahead.

Winter is also looming, when Kiwis inevitably feel the pressure of sky-rocketing power prices.

It’s a less than rosy outlook and what this poll suggests is that National is wearing a lot of the responsibility for that and people aren’t enamored with Luxon.

Unpopular prime ministers have won elections before and it’s still seven months out from polling day, but the runway for turning the economy around is growing shorter by the week.

The problem with campaigning on getting the country back on track, as National did in 2023, is that sometimes situations well outside of its control can have an overwhelming impact on whether that’s achieved or not.

Rather than quietly cursing the policy-light Opposition at home, it’s political friends (perhaps turned foes) abroad who are causing Luxon the most grief.

*The RNZ-Reid Research poll covered the period of the 12th to the 20th of March and interviewed 1000 respondents online. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

National has slipped further behind Labour in the latest RNZ-Reid Research poll, falling to 30.8 percent support.

While a better result than the 28.4 percent it recorded in the most recent Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll, it still makes grim reading for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who has recorded his lowest personal approval rating yet.

If replicated on polling day, the numbers would leave the country in limbo, producing 60 seats each for the coalition and opposition blocs.

The poll, published Monday, puts Labour in the top spot on 35.6 percent, up 0.6 points from January, while National is down 1.1 points to 30.8 percent.

New Zealand First continues its upward trajectory, climbing 0.8 points to 10.6 percent, its highest score since July 2017.

The Greens are on 10.1 percent (up 0.5 points), ACT is on 7 percent (down 0.6 points), and Te Pāti Māori sits at 3.2 percent (up 0.2 points).

The poll surveyed 1000 eligible voters online between 12-20 March. Half of the respondents, however, were surveyed before 14 March, meaning the result won’t fully reflect the public response to the dispute between Labour leader Chris Hipkins and his ex-wife.

Undecided or non-voters made up 7.1 percent of those polled.

If the results were repeated at a general election, National would win 38 seats, NZ First 13 and ACT nine. On the left, Labour would bring in 44 MPs, the Greens 12 and Te Pati Māori four.

That would make a 60-60 deadlock in a 120-seat Parliament, likely sparking negotiations across the aisle to try secure a majority and prevent an election re-run.

The party vote is reflected in the preferred prime minister measure, with Hipkins leading on 20.7 percent, down 0.4 points.

Luxon has dropped 2.1 points to 17.3 percent, while NZ First leader Winston Peters sits at 13.1 percent, up 0.5 points.

More than 19 percent of voters declined to name a preferred prime minister.

Half of respondents – 50.4 percent – say Luxon is performing poorly as prime minister, compared with 29.8 percent who rate him well.

That gives Luxon a net score of -20.6 (down 6.6 points), his weakest result in the Reid Research series since becoming National leader in 2021. (Note: Reid Research did not run any public polls between November 2023 and March 2025.)

Former National leaders, however, received worse scores while in opposition: Judith Collins recorded a net rating as low as -37.9 in mid-2020 and Simon Bridges dropped to -39 in mid-2019.

Hipkins’ net performance score remains stronger, though it too is trending down.

With 35.9 percent rating him well and 35.6 percent poorly, his net rating has slipped to just 0.3 (down 0.6 points), also his lowest as Labour leader.

The poll also shows worsening public sentiment, with 50 percent (up 3.4 points) of respondents saying New Zealand is heading in the wrong direction, compared with 32.3 percent (down 4 points) who think it is on the right track

That gives a net score of -17.7, down 7.4 points from January.

About 16 percent of voters are undecided, while another 2 percent say they do not know.

National supporters are the most optimistic with a net score of +63.1, followed by ACT supporters on +24.1.

NZ First voters are much more pessimistic, recording a net score of -24.6.

This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 12-20 March 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Winston Peters will make his State of the Nation address in Tauranga on Sunday.

It comes off the back of heavy questioning by the New Zealand First leader about the previous government’s decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic, following the release of the second phase of the royal commission of inquiry.

NZ First is trending upward in the polls. In the latest RNZ Reid Research poll it sat at 9.8 percent, enough for 12 seats in Parliament – four more than it currently holds.

Peters was third in the preferred prime minister ranking at 12.6 percent. Labour’s Chris Hipkins was at 21.1 percent, with Christopher Luxon on 19.4 percent.

Last year, Peters faced disruptions from hecklers during his State of the Nation speech to a packed crowd on a range of topics, including the “war on woke”, diversity targets, water fluoridation and the Paris Climate Agreement.

This year, it was expected Peters would address the cost of living and the state of the economy, as well as make an election policy announcement.

Peters’ speech is scheduled to begin at 2pm – watch it live here.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Winston Peters will be making his State of the Nation address in Tauranga on Sunday, purposely timed after the release of the quarterly GDP figures.

It also comes off the back of heavy questioning by the New Zealand First leader about the previous Labour government’s decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic, following the release of the second phase of the royal commission of inquiry.

Peters has been accusing Labour ministers of not passing on critical vaccine information to the public, which Labour strongly denies.

Currently, NZ First is trending upward in the polls. In the latest RNZ Reid Research poll, the party sat at 9.8 percent in the party vote, which would result in 12 seats in parliament – four more than what it currently holds.

Peters was third in the preferred prime minister ranking, at 12.6 percent. Labour’s Chris Hipkins was at 21.1 percent, with Christopher Luxon on 19.4 percent.

Last year, Peters faced disruptions from hecklers during his State of the Nation speech to a packed crowd on a range of topics, including the “war on woke”, diversity targets, water fluoridation and the Paris Climate Agreement.

This year, it was expected Peters would address the cost of living and the state of the economy, as well as make an election policy announcement.

Recently at Parliament, he said he would not make his State of the Nation speech until after the GDP figures were released. He noted other party leaders were premature making their speeches before this information was available.

On Thursday, Stats NZ data showed gross domestic product (GDP), the broad measure of economic growth, rose an anaemic 0.2 percent in the three months ended December, to be 1.3 percent higher than a year ago. On an annual average basis, the economy grew 0.2 percent over the year.

Expectations were for quarterly growth in a range of 0.2 to 0.5 percent, although the growth of the previous quarter was revised lower to 0.9 percent from 1.1 percent.

Late last year, Peters signalled he was willing to criticise his coalition partners after he savaged National’s suggestion of asset sales as a “tawdry silly argument”, which he said it was falling back on after having failed to fix the economy fast enough.

“Because they’ve failed to run the economy properly, they want to go to the assets of a time when the country was run properly, when we were number two in the world and built up by our forefathers and to start to flog those off … to so-called balance their books,” Peters said.

The recent attack on Iran by the United States and Israel had the government monitoring developments, along with how fuel and supply chains could be disrupted in New Zealand.

And last week the finance minister indicated the worst-case scenario Treasury had outlined was a rise in inflation to 3.7 percent.

Peters will likely address the global instability, and how that will impact New Zealanders.

He will also likely take a swipe at the opposition. In 2024, Peters used roughly half of his State of the Nation speech to criticise the previous Labour government, along with the media and the Green Party, before outlining New Zealand First’s plans for the country.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Analysis – An unexpected address from the Prime Minister in Wellington this week spoke volumes about the economic crisis the government is staring down the barrel of.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis and the minister responsible for fuel security, Shane Jones, have been doing the heavy lifting on what the impacts may or may not be for New Zealand’s economy if the conflict in Iran drags on.

Already suffering a cost of living crisis, New Zealanders are really starting to feel the pinch from the United States and Israel’s attacks as fuel prices soar past $3 at the pump and the flow-on effects mean almost everything else – food, services, flights – also climb to unaffordable levels.

It’s an attack on the economy and that’s an issue National has pinned its electoral hopes on in November after promising in 2023 to get the country back on track.

Late last year Labour surpassed National as the party most trusted to respond to the economic challenges, and in the most recent Ipsos Monitor this month the two parties were neck-and-neck on the issue.

Labour is also seen as more capable on inflation and cost of living.

That’s no small concern for the major governing party as it prepares for a tightly-contested election, while simultaneously dealing with an economic shock not of its own making.

Enter Christopher Luxon.

While the foreign affairs’ nuances of the war in Iran are certainly not Luxon’s forte, on the economy he feels more comfortable and has a reputation at least as a former chief executive for knowing what he’s talking about on that front.

But until Thursday he wasn’t doing the talking – Willis and Jones were.

Luxon had tasked the pair with leading the work and then jumped on a plane for four days to the Pacific at about the exact time the situation reports got bleaker back home.

The ministerial advisory group is having online meetings every morning to get updates from officials, and Willis has been doing blanket coverage media interviews and press conferences for the past couple of weeks.

Jones has taken the lead on the fuel security element and has been very much second in command.

So not surprising Luxon chose to high-tail it down to the Beehive for a face-to-face meeting with his officials on Thursday morning about what the state of play is.

For the seven days prior he’d only been receiving updates via reports and phone calls and was keen to hear the lay of the land from those at the coal face of the government’s response.

It led to a last-minute decision to hold a media conference at Parliament, alongside Willis, where the substance of what the government was doing hadn’t changed but the tone certainly had.

The purpose of the media conference was two-fold: tell New Zealanders they need to be realistic about what might be coming down the line and how bad it might get, and put the prime minister in charge of a looming crisis.

The hope for National is that it can claw back the narrative of being a safe pair of hands when the economy is in choppy seas, but the flip side is that if things do get worse before they get better and things haven’t improved at all for Kiwis’ backpockets come the election, then it’s Luxon and Willis who will wear all of it.

The war coming to an end soon is crucial to their success because even if it does end in the next week or three, the lag effect is such that it will still take time for the economy to bounce back.

With an election just shy of eight months away, it isn’t a lot of runway.

The biggest take-away from Thursday’s update was the work being done to prepare cost-of-living relief for some people if the pain at the pump, the supermarket, and almost everywhere else, continues.

Willis has signalled she’s tasked Inland Revenue with finding the best way to get targeted, temporary, and timely funding to those working Kiwis who will be impacted the most.

The biggest problem she has isn’t how to administer it, but when to pull the trigger on it.

Go too early and the government books end up looking worse for longer, but go too late and voters feel like they’ve been abandoned.

Expect discussions on the specifics of that payment to be high on the agenda at Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

National has talked a big game on being fiscally prudent.

If there’s even a whiff of Willis and Luxon sliding into cost-of-living relief creep to try keep as many voters as possible happy in the months ahead, it will be deputy prime minister and Act leader David Seymour shouting the loudest.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Winston Peters has met “informally” with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown at Peters’ home in Auckland.

Four days ago, Peters’ office said they had no plans to meet Brown while he was in New Zealand.

In a joint statement, they said they discussed “fundamental challenges facing the New Zealand-Cook Islands relationship over the past 18 months” though there appeared to be no resolutions.

“Political dialogue between the two countries will continue in the coming weeks in order to determine whether these challenges can be resolved in the present circumstances,” it stated.

“In the meantime, the Governments of the Cook Islands and New Zealand will not be providing further comment.”

Christopher Luxon said on Thursday that he would not meet with Brown in any capacity, preferring to keep it between officials.

“I’m confident we’ll get to a good place in the end, we’ve made some good progress recently, but I’m going to let our officials handle that progress,” he said.

Addressing a room of dignitaries on Wednesday, Brown said his country was “growing in influence” globally on its “voyage of statehood”.

“Our desire to pursue our own policies and interests have been reflected in our growing participation on the international stage,” Brown told a room of dignitaries.

“There are times when we must pause and consider whether the conventions and evolved understanding between our freely associated states remain aligned … we find ourselves in such a moment.”

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has acknowledged a “big shift” in the government’s messaging around the war in the Middle East, warning New Zealanders the fuel situation could get worse before it gets better.

Speaking at a media conference at Parliament on Thursday, Luxon said it had become clear the conflict would have ongoing effects on supply chains, even “in the unlikely event” it was resolved tomorrow.

“Hope is not a plan,” he said. “And so we are preparing for the worst-case scenario where the conflict is prolonged.”

Luxon said ministers, officials and industry were all keenly focused on the next eight to 12-weeks.

“New Zealand has sufficient fuel supplies. But I do want to be straight with New Zealanders: things could get worse before they actually get better. And [as] a responsible government, we need to take a prudent response and be very prepared.”

Standing alongside him, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she wanted to reassure New Zealanders the government was taking the situation seriously in case future fuel supplies were disrupted.

“We live in challenging times,” she said. “We’re not just sitting back and saying, well, the fuel supplies are fine now. They are fine now… but we are actively preparing for scenarios where they are disrupted in future.”While the tone of the media conference was sharper than previous ones, the substance of the government’s plan remained largely as outlined earlier in the week.

That included engaging with other countries around accessing refined fuel and keeping in close contact with fuel companies to stay on top of any challenges.

Willis said she would provide an update next week on the steps which could be taken at each level of the National Fuel Plan, but stressed no escalation was required right now given the country had seven weeks’ worth of fuel either in the country or on its way.

Officials would soon begin giving public updates on the country’s fuel levels twice a week, up from just once a week now.

Petrol stations across the country are seeing a surge of drivers filling up as petrol prices rises amid fears of rapidly jumping prices and potential shortages.

On Thursday, New World’s Levin station had no 91 or diesel. The local Z also had no diesel but was expecting some after midnight.

Willis said that was being driven by the individual fuel companies’ logistics and distribution, not by a national fuel shortages.

“They have sufficient supplies in the country to replenish their stocks and petrol stations. So they will be able to do that.

“But when people are buying more petrol, then they go through more at the petrol station than is normally the case. They are working to ensure that their logistics, their distribution, is working as effectively as possible.”

Regarding potential cost-of-living support, Willis said she had instructed Inland Revenue and Treasury to work on some options relating to the “tax and transfer system”.

But she stressed the government would not be able to allievate all of the cost pressures.

“We have to be careful not to raise an expectation that we will be able to blunt all of the pain that is occurring for people across the world because of the conflict in the Middle East.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Pictures of US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, and US flags have been plastered on the prime minister’s electorate office in the Auckland suburb of Botany on Thursday morning.

A sign which reads ‘Trump War Minerals HQ’ with a cutout of a bald eagle preying on a Kiwi bird was also put up outside the office.

Greenpeace has claimed responsibility.

In a statement, campaigner Juressa Lee said they were protesting a potential deal for New Zealand to supply rare and critical minerals to the US.

She said a minerals deal would lead to more mining projects, causing “environmental destruction”, and also make New Zealand complicit in the war in the Middle East.

“We know a minerals deal would be bad for the land and sea of Aotearoa. But since the United States and Israeli governments launched a military attack on Iran in clear breach of international law, the stakes are even higher.

“We’re calling on Luxon to say no to a minerals deal with Trump. We’re also inviting the public to show their strong opposition to this deal if they’re concerned about complicity in warmongering and the exploitation of our environment for military aggression.”

Luxon has previously said New Zealand is among more than 40 countries talking to the US about supplying minerals, and no Cabinet decisions have been made.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

author:rnz digital reporters_]

The Chinese Embassy says New Zealand and Australia’s recent comments on China are unwarranted and inappropriate, accusing the nations of “inexplicable colonial-style arrogance”.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong hosted New Zealand Minister of Defence Judith Collins Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Winston Peters MP on 17 March in Canberra.

Earlier this month, Australia raised concerns with China after what it called an “unsafe and unprofessional” close call between two military helicopters.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two defence ministers called behaviour by China in the South China Sea “unsafe and unprofessional”.

They “reiterated concerns about the intensification of destabilising activities and instances of unsafe and unprofessional behaviour by China in the South China Sea”

Ministers also expressed concerns about human rights violations in Xinjiang and Tibet, and Hong Kong authorities’ targeting of pro-democracy activists within Hong Kong and overseas.

The embassy said it firmly denied the allegations. It says those issues are China’s internal affairs and they would not accept international interference.

New Zealand and Australian ministers also called on China to use its influence to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“The statement overlooks the root cause of the ongoing military actions in the Middle East conducted in blatant violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, which have resulted in civilian casualties and disruptions to the global economy,” a spokesperson for the embassy said.

“It also remains silent on the two countries’ own poor records concerning human rights and ethnic minority issues.

“Instead, it contains unwarranted, inappropriate, and extensive comments on China’s internal affairs. As a Chinese saying goes, one should first ensure one’s own conduct is beyond reproach before criticising others.”

The embassy blamed other nations for tensions in the South China Sea, reiterating China’s claim over Taiwan.

“A small number of extra-regional countries have travelled vast distances to the South China Sea to engage in shows of force and deliberately stoke tensions under various untenable pretexts, thereby serving as a primary source of instability in the region.”

The embassy said the comments damaged the countries’ relationships with China.

“We urge the New Zealand side to take a clear-eyed view of the prevailing situation, to approach China’s development and the China-New Zealand relationship in an objective and impartial manner, and to work in the same direction as China – doing more to build mutual trust and advance practical cooperation.”

Collins brushed off China’s comments.

“When China sent its task group down to the Tasman Sea, circumnavigated Australia as well, did live firing, interrupted… around 50 civilian flights to New Zealand, we upheld China’s right to use international law, the UN Convention [on] the Law of the Sea, to be in that area,” she told Morning Report on Thursday.

“And what we’ve simply said is, ‘Please give us more notice if you’re doing low firings, because civilians don’t like…having to be diverted like that.’ It’s very similar in terms of the Australian recent transit that they did up north.

“They were very concerned about some of the behaviour towards them. I think it’s always important to avoid miscalculation when it comes to aircraft, ships, and people.”

She was not concerned about being called names, saying she had been “called a lot of names in politics”.

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