Something normal and abnormal
The Herald reported:
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held crisis talks with Foreign Minister Winston Peters in the Beehive last night after Peters’ office released emails to the Herald showing Luxon wanted to shift the Government’s position to show “explicit public support” for the US-led war in Iran days after it broke out.
Luxon was talked out of this position by Peters and staff in Peters’ office, the emails show.
Responding to the emails before the crisis meeting, a spokesman for Peters said Luxon’s support for the war was “imprudent” and would have “run counter to New Zealand’s national interests”.
“Experience matters in foreign policy,” he said.
The Herald contacted Luxon’s office for their response to the story. A spokesman for Luxon responded on Wednesday night, after the meeting, saying the emails “mischaracterise the PM’s position”.
“As you’d expect, it is the PM’s job to always challenge the advice he receives and, in this case, he sought to test New Zealand’s position against that of Canada and Australia.
“The public statements made by the Government reflect the PM’s position. If they didn’t, they would not have been made,” they said.
The normal aspect to this is a Prime Minister gets feedback on a draft position, and the final position varies after receiving the advice. This is a good thing.
The Labour/left Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada and UK all took more supportive stances towards the initial (not later) US strikes on Iran. It would be no surprise that the PM would say, should our stance not be the same. MFAT and the MFA said no, and their advice was taken. That is all normal.
What is abnormal is the release of these e-mails under the OIA, and how they were done. The OIA states information should not be released that could prejudice the international relations of NZ. Additionally it can be withheld under protecting collective and individual ministerial responsibility, the confidentiality of advice tendered by Ministers of the Crown and officials; or free and frank expression of opinions by or between or to Ministers of the Crown. I’d say it is 99.99% likely the Ombudsman would rule those e-mails do not have to be released under the OIA.
Further more Peters’ office unilaterally released these, not in consultation with the other Minister involved (the PM). This was a gross breach of policy and procedure. It was clearly deliberate, and designed to make the Prime Minister look bad.
What Peters did is very abnormal. There seem to be only two reasonable explanations.
- He is peeved off that Luxon and Willis hit back at him, after he needlessly started commenting on the National Party leadership. So he did it in a fit of pique. It is just tit for tat.
- He is setting things up, so he can backtrack on his promise not to go with Labour.
I don’t know which it is.
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