National Party leader Christopher Luxon wants to the government to take more and stronger action against Russia over the war in Ukraine and be more in step with actions taken by the US, UK and Australia.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Luxon says Vladimir Putin is a "war criminal" - while, so far, the prime minister has avoided the term.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta says evidence is "piling up" of war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, but would not go so far as labelling President Vladimir Putin a war criminal.
The leader of the Opposition is pushing for the Russian ambassador to New Zealand to be expelled.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has defended the ongoing presence of the Russian ambassador in New Zealand, but says expulsion remains on the table.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described to the United Nations how Ukrainian civilians were allegedly killed by invading Russian forces.
He said people died in their homes and on the streets and were crushed by tanks in their cars "for pleasure".
Zelensky warned more deaths were likely to be uncovered in areas seized from Russian invaders.
Chris Luxon told Morning Report New Zealand needs to make sure it's in lock-step with its allies.
"Our sanctions at the moment are relatively weak and so there's opportunities for us to strengthen what we're doing right," he said.
"There's more we can do around those sanctions but particularly around the biggest bank in Russia's not included - there's a bunch of things we could be doing to strengthen it even further."
New Zealand needs to have an independent foreign policy, "but if you're going to stand up for your values you have to back it up".
ACT Party leader David Seymour yesterday called for increased defence spending.
"Our geopolitical environment is changing dramatically. Jacinda agrees with that, but doesn't know what to do. Australia will soon [spend] 2 percent of GDP on defence but Jacinda couldn't and wouldn't commit to a pathway to do the same," Seymour said.
Luxon says National has a lot of sympathy for ACT's call for 2 percent of GDP to be the country's defence spend.
"We've really got ot ask some bigger questions now of how we make sure our defence matches our words, we need to go through a budget process, we need to think about what we can afford, how we could do it... It's just obvious in a world that we sit in today that if we want to protect our values we really have to really back it up."
"Our sanctions at the moment are relatively weak and so there's opportunities for us to strengthen what we're doing right" - National Party leader Christopher Luxon
Climate change
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report that global emissions of CO2 would need to peak within three years to stave off the worst impacts.
The National Party is completely committed to being net carbon zero by 2050, Luxon said.
He said the party is committed to the commitments made to the world bodies but wouldn't say whether National would commit to a 50 percent reduction in gross emissions by the end of the decade.
"From our point of view, using the ETS to be able to be the key mechanism that does a lot of the heavy lifting to be able to get there is really important. We also have to wait for the government's emissions reduction plan, we want to wait and see and see what that's about and make sure there's nothing sort of silly or stupid going on there but basically we'll wait and see..."