Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has thanked Andrew Little “for his candour and his honesty” after the former defence minister backed the coalition government’s decision to consider New Zealand’s involvement in a future phase of AUKUS.
The change in tune represents a distancing for Little from Labour’s position before it lost the general election.
From the opposition benches, Labour has claimed government language around AUKUS shifted and showed a strong desire to sign up to the second pillar of the trilateral security partnership.
But the coalition government has maintained it is simply following a process the previous Labour government started.
RNZ reported more recent comments by Winston Peters earned Little’s endorsement and “seem about right”.
Speaking to media in the Federated States of Micronesia this afternoon, Peters was asked about Little’s belief it would be reckless for New Zealand not to consider its involvement in AUKUS.
“He’s used a different adjective to describe what I described, and he did say I was basically onto it, and I thank him for that.”
“I’d like to see these issues go ahead as bipartisan, in the same way as we picked up their study in a bipartisan way, and we’re going forward.”
“Some of the comments I’m hearing are rather alarming, and I hope that common sense, logic, and our interests and the interests of liberty, freedom and democracy prevail.”
