back his side of a conflict<\/a> with his foreign minister’s office, saying he has “nothing more to add”.<\/p>\nIn an interview with RNZ on Friday, Luxon stood firm: “I’ve just told you my side of the story. It’s in the statement.”<\/p>\n
Luxon’s statement – issued on Thursday – claimed a bombshell document release from Winston Peters’ office had “mischaracterised” Luxon’s position on the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
The published emails – from early March – showed Peters’ team pushing back against the Prime Minister’s “preference for more explicit public support” of the US-led airstrikes.<\/p>\n
But in his first media interview on the topic, Luxon denied that had been his “preference” at the time.<\/p>\n
He told RNZ he had simply been testing New Zealand’s position – which was to “acknowledge” the strikes – against that of Australia and Canada, which had used the word “support”.<\/p>\n
“I challenge the advice I receive,” Luxon said. “I’m pro-New Zealand, not pro-US.”<\/p>\n
Luxon said, ultimately, all public government statements reflected his view and would not be issued otherwise: “It’s as simple as that.”<\/p>\n
“I’m the prime minister of New Zealand,” he said. “It’s quite right that I test our position versus others… And what we came out with, I fully support. That’s exactly what I believe… otherwise it wouldn’t have been said.”<\/p>\n
When releasing the documents to media, a spokesperson for Peters added that Luxon’s suggested course of action had been “imprudent” and “counter to New Zealand’s national interests”.<\/p>\n
Peters has not retracted that remark, nor responded to the claims of mischaracterisation, though he has admitted it was a “mistake” not to consult Luxon before releasing the emails.<\/p>\n
RNZ lodged a request with Luxon’s office for any documentation which might prove that Peters’ office got the PM’s position wrong.<\/p>\n
Asked directly whether he’d release such evidence, Luxon said he had already laid out his version of events.<\/p>\n
“I’ve really got nothing more to add.”<\/p>\n
Luxon’s Thursday statement also included his strongest criticism yet of Peters, questioning both his judgement and motives.<\/p>\n
“The decision to release these discussions to the media clearly put politics ahead of the national interest,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Asked whether Peters therefore remained fit for his role as foreign minister, Luxon repeatedly refused to engage.<\/p>\n
“I’m just not getting into it,” Luxon told RNZ. “I’ve said everything I want to say about it.”<\/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":"Photo: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has declined to offer any evidence to back his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-408591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408591","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=408591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JPBBZP_Christopher_Luxon_Winston_Peters_png.jpeg\")
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