On September 23, New Zealand’s opposition Labour Party
presented a foreign policy approach described as
“independent, principled and unafraid.”
The
speeches by leader Chris Hipkins and foreign affairs
spokesperson Vanushi Walters had an air of unreality. They
largely consisted of bland phrases about the need for more
“diplomacy” and “the peaceful resolution of conflicts
and disputes.”
On the same day, US President Donald
Trump told the United Nations General Assembly that he was
deciding whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” of
Iran and “drive them into hell with no chance of
survival.”
Hipkins and Walters did not mention, let
alone condemn, Trump’s genocidal threats and the criminal
war against Iran, part of an expanding global war in which
New Zealand’s ruling class is complicit as an ally of US
imperialism.
With an election looming on November 7,
Labour is highly conscious of anti-war sentiment. The war
against Iran, which has led to soaring prices, is opposed by
nearly nine in ten people in New Zealand. Protests continue
against the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, and the US is
viewed as a greater threat than China, according to one
survey.
Labour is attempting to rhetorically distance
itself from Washington, while remaining fully committed to
the military-intelligence alliance with US imperialism. The
2017–2023 Labour-Greens government supported the military
build-up against China in the Indo-Pacific region and the
US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine.
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The media
highlighted Walters’ statement that a Labour-led
government would recognise the state of Palestine, impose
“economic sanctions on Israel,” and support South
Africa’s case in the International Court of Justice
arguing that Israel has breached the Genocide
Convention.
Walters criticised the National Party-led
government for its “silence” on the genocide and for
“failing to stand up a sanctions regime.” This had
damaged NZ’s reputation as an “honest broker,” she
said.
Labour’s own record on Gaza is one of active
complicity followed by belated, disingenuous crocodile
tears. Following October 7, 2023, the Labour government
joined the US and every other imperialist power in declaring
support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” against
“terrorism”—the fraudulent pretext for the slaughter
of Palestinians. This stance contributed to Labour’s
crushing defeat in the October 14 election.
On
November 7, 2023, Hipkins (who was still the caretaker prime
minister) again refused to condemn Israel, which had by then
killed more than 11,000 people, saying he was “not going
to make a judgement” about whether it had breached
international law. Labour MPs were booed when they tried to
speak to protesters and posture as supporters of the
Palestinian people.
Three years later, with Gaza in
ruins, Labour’s proposed sanctions are entirely
hypocritical. Hipkins made clear that a Labour-led
government will strengthen NZ’s alliance with the United
States, a full partner in the ongoing genocide of the
Palestinians and the widening war against Lebanon and
Iran.
Hipkins said it was “vital” that New Zealand
remain in the Five Eyes, the intelligence sharing network
led by the US, which also includes Australia, Canada and the
UK. Seeking to downplay the Five Eyes, he said it was “not
a formal military alliance.” The Five Eyes partners,
however, are actively spying on China, the Middle East and
elsewhere and discussing war plans against China.
At a
public meeting on September 19, Hipkins similarly defended
the government’s decision to allow the FBI to open a
permanent office in Wellington. He declared: “this might
sound unusual coming from a lefty politician like me, but
it’s actually quite helpful to us,” claiming it provided
important information from “like-minded
countries.”
Opening the office last year, FBI
director Kash Patel said its purpose was “countering the
CCP [Chinese Communist Party]” in the Indo-Pacific
“theatre”—i.e. preparing for war.
Hipkins said
on September 23 that the US and China were both among New
Zealand’s “most important partners,” adding: “I
reject the idea that countries like New Zealand must choose
between one relationship and another.” Walters criticised
current Foreign Minister Winston Peters, from the far-right
NZ First Party, for his “outright racism” towards
Chinese people.
Successive governments have, in fact,
firmly aligned New Zealand with US warmongering. The
2017–2023 Labour-led government, which included the
Greens, repeatedly issued statements denouncing China and
Russia as the main “threats” facing the world. In August
2023, then Defence Minister Andrew Little stated that NZ
needed “a combat capable, ready force,” adding: “If
for example conflict does break out in the South China Sea,
where $20 billion of our exports flows through every year,
we have a stake in that, and we may be called on to play a
role.”
Hipkins declared last week that Labour would
not join the AUKUS agreement between the US, Australia and
Britain, under which Australia is being further militarised
and will be armed with nuclear-powered attack
submarines.
He added, however, that “we will work
with partners on the new frontiers of security, including
artificial intelligence in weaponry and the militarisation
of space.” The Labour leader described NZ’s alliance
with Australia as one of “the closest relationships any
two countries share.”
Australia has been transformed
into a vast base for military operations against China; the
US controls or has access to more than 110 defence
facilities there. The New Zealand military’s extremely
close integration with Australia’s armed forces means that
it is automatically part of these war
preparations.
Australia and New Zealand are both
imperialist powers and have dominated much of the Pacific
region for more than a century. They have always relied on
the support of the major imperialist power—first Britain
and then, after World War II, the US.
Labour
governments have actively supported criminal imperialist
wars led by the US, including by sending New Zealand troops
to Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
As well as
joining the military build-up against China, the last
Labour-led government actively supported the US-NATO proxy
war against Russia by sending NZ troops to Britain to train
Ukrainian conscripts. The current government has also
deployed troops to Poland.
Hipkins declared that
Labour would “continue to support Ukraine in defending its
sovereignty and territorial integrity.” This is a fraud.
In the name of “independence” and “freedom,”
Ukraine’s far-right regime has turned the country into a
police state and placed it at the disposal of the US and
NATO.
Having provoked Russia’s disastrous invasion
in 2022, the imperialist powers are escalating the war,
sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives, so that they can
plunder the resources of Ukraine and of Russia itself.
Left-wing and anti-war parties are banned within Ukraine and
a court has sentenced the socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk to 15
years in prison for the “crime” of calling on Russian
and Ukrainian workers to unite and put an end to the
war.
The working class must be warned: another Labour
government will continue and escalate New Zealand’s
involvement in the widening world war. It will rapidly
increase military spending and recruitment, which will be
funded by cutting social programs and workers’ living
standards. The Greens and the union bureaucracy will work
with Labour to enforce this agenda.
To stop the plunge
into world war and barbarism, workers and young people must
break from all the capitalist parties and build a new
movement, based on the program of socialist
internationalism, to put an end to the capitalist system
which is the source of war.
By Tom Peters and John
Braddock, Socialist Equality Group
29 September
2026
Original url https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2026/09/29/bdgx-s29.html
