Craig
McCulloch Deputy Political Editor
Christopher
Luxon has walked back claims made by one of his ministers
about the Greens, before then suggesting – wrongly – that
they originated from the media.
Trade Minister Todd
McClay, on Wednesday, accused the Green Party of “joining
with foreign actors to attack New Zealand” in regards to a
climate change complaint lodged with the European
Commission.
The Greens quickly denied any involvement
and McClay provided no evidence.
Asked for evidence on
Friday, Luxon put the responsibility back on reporters to
investigate whether the Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had
any involvement.
“That’d be up for you guys to
accertain whether she has or hasn’t,” he said.
Luxon
then suggested that the media had first raised the
possibility of Swarbrick’s involvement.
“I’m just
saying that’s not appropriate if that’s the case. But
equally, I’m sure she hasn’t done that.”
Told that the
Green Party had not be involved, Luxon replied: “Great,
great. That’s good to hear. That’s good that you’ve bottomed
that out. Well done, well done… Good job.”
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In
a statement, Swarbrick said McClay had provided “zero
evidence” to support his “bizarre claim”. She said Luxon’s
government was blaming everybody else for the consequences
of its policy to “shred climate action”.
“The worst
absurdity of all of this is that the most fired up the
government has got on climate action is trying to cover
their tracks by attacking everyone else, instead of doing
the responsible thing.”
RNZ has asked McClay’s office
for evidence for his claim.
Luxon
said he was not worried about the international complaint
because New Zealand upheld its free trade
obligations.
“It’s very disingenuous to suggest
otherwise. We take that incredibly seriously. We are a free
trading nation. We respect our FTA agreements and what’s in
them, and we’ll continue to do so.
“When any other
country gets to 96.3 percent renewable electricity, then you
might want to throw some stones at us.
“But until
then, I’m not that interested in what Laura Clarke or
anybody else says, frankly.”
Clarke, a former British
high commissioner to New Zealand, told Morning Report
on Friday that the legal action put New Zealand’s 100
percent pure brand at
risk.
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