Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
David Seymour says he has asked Foreign Minister Winston Peters to, in future, talk with ACT about New Zealand's position on Israel before making decisions on it.
However, National's deputy leader Nicola Willis says she would not have expected Peters to consult with other parties over a ministerial decision like that.
New Zealand last week voted in support of a UN resolution, affirming the International Court of Justice's opinion that Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territory was unlawful.
Peters announced the move last Thursday, saying it was fundamentally a "signal of our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution".
Peters said New Zealand's support came with some caveats, which included concerns that the proposed one-year timeframe for Israeli withdrawal from the territory was unrealistic, and that the UN resolution went further than was envisaged by the ICJ's advisory opinion.
"New Zealand supported this Resolution after careful consideration," New Zealand's representative to the UN Carolyn Schwalger said at the time. "This resolution, though not perfect, sets the international community's expectations that both parties must move towards a negotiated settlement."
Her statement said New Zealand would expect Israel to take "meaningful steps towards compliance with international law, particularly through withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian Territory" within the next 12 months.
Peters has since departed New Zealand to attend the UN in New York, and was unavailable to comment on it on Tuesday.
AAP reported ACT was not consulted on the move, and Seymour had raised concerns about it - saying he would expect a more open dialogue in future.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament, Seymour clarified he supported the government's position, but was concerned about the process.
"We do support the government's position, we're compelled to do that. And I've also just had a quiet chat," he said.
"This has been a pretty controversial decision for a lot of people, it's not something I've participated in. I've talked to Winston Peters, we had a friendly chat, I said 'You know, look, it would be good if we could chat about this more in future'.
"It's all hypothetical now but we've long been sympathetic to Israel. As the MP for Epsom I represent probably the largest Jewish community in New Zealand and I always have an ear to the ground for them too because they're good people who have actually suffered a lot in different ways - particularly in the last year with the upset in the community and some of it targeted at them, so I always try to see both sides of this issue."
He said taking a position of agreeing to disagree needed to be signalled before the decision was taken, and in this case there was no opportunity to do so. He suggested it had been a fast-moving decision and Peters may not have had time to consult more widely.
"We are compelled to support our government's position and we always do that," he said. "But it's easier to do that if we can be involved in the deicison-making, which is generally the way it goes, but I understand. You know, you're a minister, you get a phone call in the middle of the night, a vote's happening on the other side of the world, sometimes you got to move fast.
"People will say it's a grey area. Some people say life comes at you fast, didn't have time. Others would say 'this is so important, you should stop'. Then, on the other hand, we don't control the timing of the UN."
However, National's deputy leader Nicola Willis said she would not have expected National as a party to be consulted on the vote.
"That's a ministerial responsibility so parties wouldn't expect to be consulted on, just as when Ministers make decisions within their delegations they don't routinely consult other political parties," she said.
"I'm sure in the course of events that the minister will have spoken with the prime minister. The nature of foreign affairs and the fast-moving nature of resolutions is that that engagement occurs at that top level."
Questioned about whether Seymour was therefore wrong to expect to be consulted, she said she had not seen his comments in context. When Seymour's statement was put to her, she said she would let it speak for itself.
In a statement, Peters said the vote was "entirely consistent with this country's long-standing stance on our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution".
"There is no change in New Zealand's policy settings in relation to the Middle East peace process. The minister of foreign affairs does not consult with coalition partners on the literally hundreds of UN General Assembly resolutions that are considered each year that are within established foreign policy settings.
"The minister does consult on significant changes to foreign policy settings."