Christopher
Luxon has criticised Winston Peters for making
“inappropriate attention-seeking comments” after the foreign
minister told a Chinese-born New Zealand MP to “go back to
your own country”.
The prime minister and National
Party leader used the occasion to urge voters to support the
National Party and said he backs Chinese New
Zealanders.
The comments follow pointed
remarks from Chinese ambassador Wang Xiaolong in
response to Peters’ insult.
Peters launched his attack
during Parliament’s general debate on Wednesday after being
heckled by Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan. In response, Peters
told Xu-Nan to “go back to where you’ve come from, you
loudmouth”.
“This is called a democracy, unlike what
you’re used to,” he said. Peters also accused China of lying
“like a flatfish”.
Xu-Nan was born in China but moved
to New Zealand as a child in 1994.
Approached for
comment, a spokesperson for Luxon issued a statement in his
role as National Party leader.
“Winston Peters has a
long track record of inappropriate attention-seeking
comments designed to get the media and other politicians to
talk about him instead of the issues Kiwis are facing. This
is another example of that,” Luxon said.
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“To
our Kiwi-Chinese community, National and I back you, and to
every New Zealander who wants representatives focused on the
issues that matter to you, rather than attention-seeking for
cheap headlines, Party Vote National.”
Peters has not
resiled from his initial remarks, instead doubling-down and
engaging in a back-and-forth with China’s ambassador on
Thursday.
Wang published a post on X on Thursday
morning, writing: “We have absolutely no interest in being
dragged into the domestic politics of other
countries.
“Suffice it to say, sometimes, a statement
says more about the person that makes it than anything or
anybody else.”
In a social media post in response,
Peters decried the “pearl clutching and faux outrage” and
said Wang’s comment simply proved the point he had made in
Parliament.
“We live in a democracy that includes free
speech and rights – those two values that other certain
countries not only limit, but do so with force.
“If
you want to compare what our free democratic country has –
in particular our parliament – then go back and see what
it’s like in those communist and dictatorship countries and
look for yourself.”
Peters concluded his message: “If
that offends the pearl clutchers and the communist shills
labelling it as ‘dangerous’ – welcome to New
Zealand.”
Former prime minister Helen Clark also
weighed in on X late Wednesday, describing Peters’ comments
as a “dangerous way” to refer to New Zealand’s largest trade
partner.
Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast on
Thursday, Xu-Nan described Peters’ comments as a “desperate
attempt to distract” from the coalition’s
record.
“It’s a little bit unbelievable to have a
Minister for Foreign Affairs, I guess, scapegoating the
migrant communities as a distraction to shift the blame away
from all of the harm that this government is
doing.”
“What we want to see is Prime Minister
Christopher Luxon actually stepping up and holding his
ministers accountable for their behavioural
patterns.”
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