David Seymour wants to be consulted on UN votes, Winston Peters says be careful what you wish for

Act leader David Seymour. Photo / Marty Melville

Act leader David Seymour was not happy at being left out of Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ consultations on a vote at the United Nations General Assembly last week calling on Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestine within a year.

Seymour said that while he was “always on the team” when it came to backing Government decisions and the minister, he wanted to be consulted first.

“I’ve also expressed that this has been a controversial decision for a lot of people and it’s not something I participated in. I talked to Mr Peters we had a friendly chat and I said it would be good if we could chat about this more in the future,” Seymour said.

Peters’ office responded with a statement questioning the practicalities of what Seymour was asking for.

A spokesman for Peters said New Zealand’s vote was “entirely consistent with this country’s long-standing stance on our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution”.

“The Minister of Foreign Affairs does not consult with coalition partners on the literally hundreds of UN General Assembly resolutions that are considered each year that are within established foreign policy settings. The Minister does consult on significant changes to foreign policy settings,” he said.

Struggles in the Middle East were top of mind at Parliament on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaking about the recent Israeli air strikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which have killed 492 people.

Luxon said he expected Israel to adhere to international law but would not say whether he believed Israel was doing this.

“We support the ICJ rulings,” Luxon said.

While attention since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 has focused on Israel’s invasion and occupation of Gaza, unrest was now expanding to the north, with large numbers of Israelis cleared from northern Israel for fear of war and airstrikes, while Israel makes strikes on Lebanon.

Luxon said he discussed the war with the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani when he visited New Zealand last month. Qatar has played a leading role in attempting to negotiate a ceasefire.

Luxon would not say what those discussions involved.

“It is up to both sides to come to the table.

“There is a proposal on the table and we need both parties to get together and agree to that permanent ceasefire,” he said.

Labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesman David Parker said Labour backed the Government on its vote at the UN last week. He called on the Government to go further and recognise Palestinian statehood.

“We think the Government should go further. We think they should be joining the proceeding brought by South Africa in the ICJ,” Parker said, referring to a case brought by South Africa, which alleges Israel might have broken international law in its invasion of Gaza.

Parker warned the current Government’s pivot towards the United States on important foreign policy matters, including potential participation in Aukus pillar 2, linked New Zealand by proxy to the Middle East conflict.

This is mainly because Aukus is often justified as an attempt by the US, Australia, and the UK to uphold the rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific, at the same time as those powers do somewhat less to enforce breaches of that same order in the Middle-East.

“The selective way in which some of the superpowers apply the rules-based order including in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is shameful really and it undermines support for the international rule of law,” he said.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.