{"id":264415,"date":"2026-02-02T21:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264415\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T21:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T21:06:09","slug":"christopher-luxon-winston-peters-basically-calling-each-other-liars-chris-hipkins-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/264415\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters ‘basically calling each other liars’, Chris Hipkins says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"New<\/p>\n

\nChristopher Luxon and Winston Peters pictured in Parliament. (File photo)
\nPhoto: VNP \/ Phil Smith\n<\/p>\n

Labour leader Christopher Hipkins says Winston Peters and Christopher Luxon have “basically been calling each other liars” while in coalition government.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Morning Report, Hipkins said it was a sign the leaders of National and New Zealand First did not have a “healthy working relationship”.<\/p>\n

Hipkins was challenged over how Prime Minister Luxon was calling his deputy and Foreign Minister a “liar”.<\/p>\n

He replied Luxon was “saying he’s wrong and saying his numbers are wrong and saying that he’s basically not upfront with New Zealanders”.<\/p>\n

Morning Report’s Ingrid Hipkiss said saying a leader was wrong was different to saying they were not telling the truth.<\/p>\n

Hipkins said: “They’re both effectively saying that of each other.”<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

\nLabour leader Chris Hipkins. (File photo)
\nPhoto: VNP \/ Phil Smith\n<\/p>\n

He said Peters saying the public was not told the truth about aspects of immigration was “a big claim for the previous Deputy Prime Minister and now Foreign Affairs Minister.<\/p>\n

“When you’ve got the Foreign Affairs Minister saying the Prime Minister’s not telling the truth, I think that’s an indictment on the current government.”<\/p>\n

Hipkins comments come after Luxon and Peters disagreed over immigration clauses<\/a> in the India free trade deal.<\/p>\n

Luxon called the clash a “mature disagreement”.<\/p>\n

NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed it could mean “tens of thousands of people” arriving onshore and taking opportunities “away from New Zealanders”.<\/p>\n

Peters insisted “the truth wasn’t being told to the public”.<\/p>\n

National strongly denied this. Luxon said Peters was “wrong” about the China FTA and “he’s wrong on this one too”.<\/p>\n

He told Morning Report on Monday: “He had a difference of opinion, he’s had a long held view around immigration issues, around Free Trade Agreements. That’s well understood, his political party, that’s what he believes… he’s wrong on that.”<\/p>\n

Labour and the Greens were due to appear at Waitangi on Tuesday in a show of unity that the two parties were working together.<\/p>\n

“We want to send a really clear message that you can disagree, you can work constructively with people, still have disagreements without getting into abuse,” Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

“If you look at the current government, you’ve got ministers, senior ministers, taking potshots at one another.<\/p>\n

“That’s not what MMP should be about.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters pictured in Parliament. (File photo) Photo: VNP \/ Phil Smith Labour leader Christopher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-264415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}