Helen Clark. Photo: AFP / Kena Betancur
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark and her old political rival Don Brash have teamed up to criticise Christopher Luxon, accusing him of making a surprise "radical change in NZ's foreign policy" that could upset our biggest trading partner, China.
While in the US recently, the prime minister gave an interview to The Financial Times in which he said New Zealand would "increasingly disclose cases of Chinese espionage".
He also said New Zealand was now "very open" to participating in AUKUS Pillar 2, a defence partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States; and talked about the New Zealand Defence Force being a "force multiplier for Australia and the US and other partners".
Clark and Brash, who faced off in 2005's highly contentious and nail-biting election campaign, issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying it would be "difficult, if not impossible, to maintain" a cordial relationship with China "if the government continues to align its positioning with that of the United States".
Former PM on NZ foreign policy shift
Clark was prime minister of the Labour-led government when New Zealand became the first OECD nation to sign a free trade agreement with China. Brash was for a time leader of the National Party, and later led ACT.
The pair said there had been "no hint of a major change in New Zealand foreign policy" in National's election campaign, and Luxon's comments could have "major implications for trade, defence deployments, and public spending".
Don Brash. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
"The Financial Times interview with the prime minister saw him make statements which were considerably more pro-military alliance with the US than we've seen before," Clark told RNZ's Midday Report on Wednesday.
"That really did imply a hard reset of New Zealand's foreign policy if you take a number of elements of the statement together - change in language to talking about New Zealand defence assets, for example, being a force multiplier for the US as well as Australia.
"The issue of the status of visiting forces agreement to enable New Zealand to deploy to the Philippines - and that immediately sends signals that there might be naval assets in the South China Sea.
"The reference to boosting defence spending when everything else is being cut.
"The being 'very open' to joining AUKUS Pillar 2 - we haven't heard the 'very open' phrase before.
"And then, of course, the naming and shaming of China, which now seems to be the approach that New Zealand will increasingly take towards the major trade partner."
ACT leader David Seymour is acting prime minister, with Luxon on personal leave and deputy Winston Peters overseas.
He said New Zealand's policy had not changed.
"We haven't been invited to join pillar 2, we haven't accepted joining pillar 2, we've carried on conversations about joining pillar 2 that actually the previous Labour government under Chris Hipkins was also engaged in - so in substance our position hasn't changed."
He said he was an admirer of Clark and knew Brash well, but both were "curiously amoral about this particular issue".
"Their basic argument is America's a country, China's a country, we should treat them exactly the same. Well, there's one of them which is heavily engaged in spying on New Zealand, one of them is not a democracy, and ... one has a pretty patchy history on human rights."
On Luxon raising concerns about China spying, he said there were no cases of US, Australian or UK spying on New Zealand's parliament as had been discovered happened in 2021.
He said he did not think there had been a shift in New Zealand's stance under the coalition government, but a shift had been happening for years.
"We wish to continue a relationship with China but we're not going to shrink from calling out things that we disagree with - that is really a position that we've been building towards with successive governments over the last three or four years.
"I think we should focus on our own policies of ensuring New Zealand's economy is competitive, and that's why we're doing RMA, infrastructure funding and financing, education, you name it we're reforming it.
"If the United States is going to turn its back on trade and investment I think we should be opening our doors to it, I prefer in life and in politics to focus on things I can change."
Foreign Minister Winston Peters in May said New Zealand was not close to a decision on participation in AUKUS Pillar 2, which involved the sharing of advanced technology, because he was not yet sure exactly what New Zealand would get out of it.
Pillar 1 involved nuclear submarines, a no-go area for longtime nuclear-free New Zealand.
"The previous government's stance was to explore it, but the previous prime minister had made it clear that he wasn't convinced," Clark said of Pillar 2. "We're now seeing a lot more conviction from this government that that's the way they want to go, so altogether it amounts to quite a substantial shift."
Clark said Luxon's comments risked putting New Zealand's independent foreign policy stance "on the bonfire", as well as our economic security.
"[China] takes twice as much of our exports as Australia and more than twice as much as the US… we have a problem," she said.
"I would also note that the calling out of China is on the issue of spying, but then the US spies, the UK spies, New Zealand spies, so many countries spy. But New Zealand is choosing to call out one country because it's following the footsteps of the US.
"So this, I think, has quite serious economic implications."
AUKUS Pillar 2 was recently slammed by a former Australian foreign minister as fragrant, methane-wrapped bull****'.
Luxon has in the past refused to guarantee public consultation on joining AUKUS Pillar 2.