‘Excellent speech’: NZ prime minister backs Penny Wong in Keating spat

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has backed Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s warnings about China’s destabilising and provocative behaviour in the South China Sea as he urged the trans-Tasman neighbours to develop a seamless common market for defence equipment and emerging technologies.

Former prime minister Paul Keating last week blasted Wong for being overly critical of China in a speech on the sidelines of the special ASEAN-Australia summit in Melbourne, and Keating’s attack prompted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other senior cabinet colleagues to rally behind Wong.

New Zealand Prime Minister says it makes sense for his country, Australia and Canada to develop a joint position on the war in Gaza.Credit: Joe Armao

In an exclusive interview with this masthead, Luxon said Wong had delivered an “excellent speech” about promoting peace and stability in the region, and added that he “fully supported her remarks”.

“Essentially, what she was saying was: we need to make sure that we de-escalate in the South China Sea, but it’s important that, in order for that to happen, everyone needs to follow the rules,” said Luxon, a career businessman who won the prime ministership in November.

“She’s right: if we can get all parties, where there’s tension, to actually follow the rules that keeps us all safe.”

In comments that did not directly name but were clearly aimed at China, Wong said in her speech: “We face destabilising, provocative and coercive actions, including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air and militarisation of disputed features.

“We know that military power is expanding, but measures to constrain military conflict are not – and there are few concrete mechanisms for averting it.”

Adding to his previous criticisms of Wong, Keating said in a statement the next day: “It doesn’t take much to encourage Penny Wong, sporting her ‘deeply concerned’ frown, to rattle the China can – a can she gave a good shake to yesterday.”

Luxon, who leads the centre-right New Zealand National Party, has joined with Albanese and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to issue two joint statements on the war in Gaza, with the most recent statement in February warning of “catastrophic” consequences if Israel launches an incursion into the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

“I think there’s power in us coming together in that way as three countries that have very like-minded positions and values,” Luxon said.

“I actually think it gives us more weight in the world.”

Asked whether he believed Israel was listening to the leaders’ warnings to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza, Luxon said: “I hope so.”

While deploring Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, Luxon said that “illegal settlements” by Israel in the West Bank were “causing huge pain” and damaging efforts to achieve a two-state solution.

New Zealand last month announced travel bans on extremist Israeli settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, a policy measure some Labor MPs have urged the Albanese government to adopt.

Luxon said he was open to working together with Australia and Canada beyond the war in Gaza, possibly on trade and national security.

Reiterating his desire for New Zealand to join “pillar two” of the AUKUS pact, Luxon said he wants his nation to become “interoperable” with the Australian Defence Force.

“It makes us a force multiplier to the efforts of Australia, and so there’s no point in us making investments that don’t align with the hardware that we see in the defence space in Australia,” he said.

Luxon added that there were “huge opportunities” for Australia and New Zealand to expand free trade arrangements, noting that the 1983 Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement is regarded as one of the world’s most comprehensive free trade pacts.

“There is now a whole bunch of new topics, whether it’s artificial intelligence, whether it’s green technology, where we can collaborate even more to get more harmonisation and alignment to make it a more seamless trans-Tasman experience,” said Luxon, who served as chief executive of Air New Zealand and Unilever Canada before entering politics.

He said he was “very open to exploring” opportunities for New Zealand to join the pillar two of the AUKUS pact, which relates to collaboration on advanced technologies such as hypersonic weapons, cyber, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

While anti-nuclear New Zealand has no desire to join “pillar one” of the pact – which relates to nuclear-powered submarines – Luxon said his government was “very supportive” of Australia’s plan to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with the United States and United Kingdom.

Thanking Albanese for inviting him to join the ASEAN-Australia summit, Luxon said: “I think that New Zealand needs to have a lot more ambition and aspiration in the region, and a big part of our future is really about South-East Asia.

“We need to be able to get out in the world and hustle and actually build these relationships, and I think there’s a lot more trade opportunities as you’re seeing rapidly rising middle classes right throughout South-East Asia.”

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