The Government will formally weigh up New Zealand’s position on the recognition of the state of Palestine over the next month before a formal decision is made in September.
It follows close partners of New Zealand recently indicating they will recognise the Palestinian state in September, with Australia the latest to join the group.
However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been unwilling to explain to New Zealanders what exact criteria will need to be met in order for recognition to occur.
The decision, to be made behind closed doors in Cabinet, is a “complex” one, Luxon said.
He acknowledged there is a broad ranges of views about the issue nationally, as well as within his own Government. But he does believe his Cabinet will come to a unified position.
Both Labour and the Greens were critical of the Government’s indecisiveness, arguing New Zealand is becoming an outlier internationally.
“It’s well and truly time for the New Zealand government to recognise Palestine,” Labour leader Chris Hipkins said.
“It’s the right thing to do, and no amount of waffle from them is going to hide the fact that they are showing a total lack of leadership on the issue.”
The Greens’ co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Palestinian people “cannot eat empty statements”.
“Palestine needs our action. The people of this country have been mobilising every week for two years demanding it. Luxon’s Government can and must act - they are the only thing standing in their own way.”
While the Government has been saying it is a matter of when, not if, New Zealand recognised Palestine, the latest development came when Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters raised the issue in Cabinet on Monday.
In a statement afterwards, he noted that some of New Zealand’s partners had opted to recognise the Palestinian state, while others had not.
“Ultimately, New Zealand has an independent foreign policy, and on this issue, we intend to weigh up the issue carefully and then act according to New Zealand’s principles, values and national interest,” he said.
Peters said New Zealand had long questioned whether pre-requisites for a viable and legitimate Palestinian state exist and the Government needed to “weight up whether sufficient progress is being made against these benchmarks”.
He said the Government would take “heed of the facts on the ground deteriorating rapidly, our close partners being divided on the issue of recognition, and a range of Arab states making clear Hamas must disarm and must have no future role in Palestinian governance”.
There is a “broad range of strongly held views” across Government, Parliament and New Zealand, Peters said.
He looked forward to canvassing these before a proposal was taken to Cabinet. Peters will then travel to New York in September for the United Nations’ leaders week, where he will present the Government’s approach.
However, the Prime Minister wouldn’t specifically outline what factors Cabinet will be considering when it makes its decision.
“I am not going to get ahead of the process,” Luxon said. “We are taking it very seriously. We appreciate it is an important decision. It is something for us to work through in a very serious, proper way.”
Asked again what the criteria was, he said: “We will work that through as a Government and as a Cabinet.”
But Luxon did say the Government would “not recognise a state that has Hamas in it”.
“There is no role for Hamas in any future Palestinian state... that is an absolute non-starter,” he said.
The Prime Minister said he had spoken with the leaders of the likes of the United Kingdom, France and Australia about their stances, but New Zealand would “form our own position”.
Luxon was confident Cabinet would come to a unified position. He wouldn’t share his own personal view.
The announcement comes as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his country will recognise the Palestinian state at next month’s UN General Assembly.
The crisis in Gaza was among topics discussed by Luxon and Albanese during their annual meeting in Queenstown over the weekend.
“I think overwhelmingly Australians want to see two things,” Albanese said.
“One is they want to see a ceasefire. They want to see the killings stop. They want to see hostages released. They want to see peace in the region. The second thing they want is they don’t want conflict brought to Australia either.”
Luxon said New Zealand wanted to see hostages released, unfettered humanitarian aid going into Gaza and a ceasefire.
“Military action that we’ve seen is not the way to solve this problem. It requires diplomacy. It requires dialogue. I think all New Zealanders, all Australians, will be horrified by what they see on the news.”
In Parliament last month, Peters was asked about New Zealand’s stance on recognising Palestine.
“We steadfastly support the establishment of a Palestinian State and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. We have done so for decades,” he said.
Asked by Act’s Simon Court whether recognising Palestine before Hamas was to return hostages constituted a reward for terrorism, Peters said: “That’s most likely how it’ll be interpreted.”
He said Hamas needed to “give back the hostages”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters on Monday that any decision by foreign leaders to recognise Palestine was ”rewarding terror”, according to reports.
“It defies imagination or understanding how intelligent people around the world, including seasoned diplomats, government leaders, and respected journalists, fall for this absurdity.”
He also said Israel’s goal was not to occupy Gaza, but instead to “free it from Hamas terrorists”.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. In 2025, he was a finalist for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.