Carr, Peters in fight over AUKUS
Bob Carr and New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister have ratcheted up their clash over AUKUS, as the former premier and foreign minister threatens legal action over a comment.
Amid discussions New Zealand may play a part in AUKUS Pillar 2 – which Mr Carr strongly opposes – Winston Peters made comments about Mr Carr and China on Radio NZ on Thursday.
It spurred Mr Carr to threaten legal action against Mr Peters, who is also New Zealand’s Foreign Minister.
The spat continued on Friday morning, when Mr Peters took to X to seemingly fire another shot at Mr Carr.
“We should never be accepting of any irrelevant ill-informed shill from some other country to walk into New Zealand and try to tell us what to do,” Mr Peters wrote.
“Here in New Zealand we respect something called a ‘country’s independent nationhood’. That principle seems lost on these people who just use it as a punchline.”
A few hours later, he shared quotes from an RNZ interview where he said he was “in for a legal fight” with Mr Carr.
“I’m not a coward, I’m standing up for the rights and principles of our society,” he told RNZ on Friday morning.
Carr, Peters in fight over AUKUS