Former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr has threatened to sue New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters for defamation after Peters called him a “Chinese puppet” during an RNZ interview .
And Labour Leader Chris Hipkins has said Peters should be stood down from his role over the comments.
In Parliament at Question Time this afternoon, Labour’s David Parker asked if the deputy prime minister stood by his criticism of the critics of AUKUS, including his statement that quoted Bob Carr as “nothing more than a Chinese puppet”.
Peters replied: “Yes, particularly those comments. The fact is critics don’t know what they don’t know regarding the strategic challenges New Zealand faces. That they malign the agencies of the state charged with collecting and analysing for their government, intelligence that informs our view about the challenging strategic environment in the Pacific. That Pillar 2 is a technology-sharing mechanism and not a military alliance. That the critics were silent like lambs ever since October 2021 when that member’s government started considering New Zealand’s involvement with AUKUS. The same Labour government that sanctioned officials to initiate discussions with AUKUS partners in 2023 but who now act like lions following the change of government.
Chinese puppets?
“And one last thing, as for Bob Carr, it appears we’ve been late to the party. Here I refer to an article in an Australian Financial Review dated November 8, 2018 that anticipated my remarks. It says, ‘how Bob Carr became China’s pawn.’ Well by the way, could I just finish by saying, that perhaps with his extensive legal knowledge he could explain the difference between a puppet and a pawn.“
Parker then asked if other critics were “Chinese puppets”.
One was the former leader of Act, Richard Prebble, who wrote in an article ‘it is lunacy to join a military alliance aimed at our biggest trading partner.’ Peters said Prebble wrote a book called I’ve been thinking, and that he wished he would do that now.
The former leader of National and Act, Don Brash wrote an article titled, Why on earth would we join AUKUS, in any form? Peters said he Brash had many skills and was exceptional is some cases but those skills weren’t in foreign policy.
‘Haven’t been asked’
A former prime minister of Australia, Paul Keating, called the AUKUS pact the worst deal in history. Peters said Keating’s party didn’t support what he had to say. Peters said he suspected Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong didn’t either.
Parker then asked, “Why can’t the minister understand New Zealanders’ concerns about the promotion of AUKUS when less than two weeks ago he upped the ante by saying he saw ‘powerful reasons for New Zealand engaging practically with AUKUS“.
Peters brought context to the quote. “That very paragraph closes with the words, when the parties mutually agree that the time is appropriate, and we set out very clearly last night that we haven’t even had a chance to consider the matters that they began the discussion on, or conclude them, or have even been asked by the AUKUS partners to be a part of it. And, if that request comes, then we’ll have to sit, we’ll have to examine here and hopefully of course across party political lines whether we should or not.“
Peters said the government was going to bring the country back into control. “We’re gonna bring our economy as some leader has said, back on track, and as a more profound leader said, take back our country.“
