Just hours after admitting he “misspoke” when claiming New Zealand would support “any action” to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, Christopher Luxon last night had to return to Parliament to correct another answer related to the Middle East conflict.
But in that correction, the Greens say the Prime Minister made another error, which they expect he may need to address when Parliament resumes today.
Earlier on Tuesday, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick asked the Prime Minister if his Government would “commit to automatically extending visas for people who are in this country right now whose home countries have been affected by this war”.
She said this had happened in the context of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022.
The former Labour Government in March 2022 decided to extend by 12 months the visas of all Ukrainians in New Zealand whose temporary visas were due to the expire by the end of that year. This was expected to help about 140 people.
This meant visa-holders didn’t have to approach Immigration New Zealand to have their visas extended.
In response to the Green MP, Luxon said: “I understand that we are doing that and the Minister of Immigration will continue to take advice on that too.”
However, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford had told reporters just moments before that visas would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Asked what the Government’s approach would be to visas, she said when conflicts break out and people can’t get home, “if they contact Immigration, we’ll be really pragmatic about making sure they remain legally in New Zealand”.
“It’s case-by-case. We will see what visa they are already on and extend that ... There is no blanket approach.”
At around 9pm on Tuesday night, Luxon returned to the House to make a “personal explanation to correct an answer”.
He said: “To be perfectly clear, Immigration New Zealand has a well-established process for international conflicts and will facilitate and take a pragmatic approach to visa renewal when people are unable to return home.”
It’s understood the Prime Minister had received advice before making his explanation.
“This was not an automatic process in the context of the invasion of Ukraine and decisions will continue to be taken on individual visas,” Luxon said.
“Iranian nationals who are concerned about their visa status should contact Immigration New Zealand. This also applies to those people whose travel is disrupted and visas are close to expiry.”
Swarbrick told the Herald “we are dealing with a Prime Minister who is not across his brief”.
“It would be funny if it wasn’t so embarrassing, if it wasn’t so ultimately dangerous. We are not playing tiddlywinks here. We are talking about literal war unfolding in the Middle East, which the United States and Israel are fanning the flames of.
“We have a Prime Minister that is unwilling to condemn a very clear breach of international law.”
The Green co-leader said she asked about the visas as she had heard from constituents worried about the risk of potentially having to return to a war zone.
But what Luxon said was “clearly untrue”, Swarbrick said.
“He then snuck into the chamber late at night and issued what he called a correction.”
But she said that correction contained another error in that he said there was no “automatic extension” in the context of Ukraine.
“We expect that the Prime Minister will have to issue yet another correction.”
Swarbrick later wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to “correct a significant point” in his late-night personal explanation.
It was “incorrect” to say the process for visa renewal was not automatic in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, the MP said.
She cited a Cabinet paper from 2022 which says ministers agreed “to extend by 12 months the visas of all Ukrainians onshore whose temporary visas were due to expire by the end of 2022”.
“I request that you correct your statement that visa extensions were taken on an individual basis in the context of the invasion of Ukraine.”
But the Prime Minister’s Office told the Herald that Ukrainians in New Zealand on temporary visas when Russia “initially” invaded Ukraine in late February 2022 had to apply for extensions on a case-by-case basis.
It was not until March 7, 2022 – so nearly a couple of weeks later – that the then-Cabinet extended the visas.
“The process for Ukraine extensions has changed multiple times as the conflict has dragged on,” a spokesperson said.
“It is early days for the Iran conflict and the Immigration Minister is monitoring the situation.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the Prime Minister admitted he “misspoke” at his Monday press conference by saying “any action” to stop the Iranian regime obtaining a nuclear weapon was a “good thing”. He said he “meant action rather than any action.”
Swarbrick said all politicians occasionally have a “human stutter”, but that was different to “not knowing the substance of the issue that you are required to be in charge of as the literal leader of the country”.
She said on various topics, ranging from foreign affairs to economics, “the Prime Minister just doesn’t seem to know what is going on”.
On the issue of the visas, the Green MP said her party wanted the Government to take a similar approach as to what happened at the start of the Ukraine invasion.
It was a “hugely arduous and bureaucratic process” for people to get their visas extended, especially when they were already “traumatised” by what is going on in their home countries, Swarbrick said.
“A question for this Government [is] what is so different about doing this for Iranians?”
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s Chief Political Reporter, based in the Press Gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.