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Early political career
New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Rise to power, 1990-1999
Fifth Labour Government Sixth Labour Government
Sixth National Government
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TheCarr–Peters scandal is an ongoing diplomatic and political scandal inAustralasia, betweenBob Carr, formerly Australianminister for Foreign Affairs andpremier of New South Wales, andWinston Peters, New Zealand's currentminister of foreign affairs and then-deputy prime minister. The scandal began with an initial incident on 2 May 2024, when Peters appeared onRNZ to discuss proposals to joinPillar 2 ofAUKUS, a military pact Carr has strongly opposed, by calling him "nothing more than a Chinesepuppet",[1] and that he "sold his soul to China",[2] among other now-redacted insults.[3][4] Carr said the comments by Peters were "entirely defamatory".[5]
A transcript of the interview and articles it spawned were rapidly censored after Carr accused Peters of libel. Peters stood by his statement about Carr atquestions for oral answer inParliament.[6] The main New Zealand opposition party,Labour, called for Peters to be stood down as a minister. In response, Peters held a 2018Australian Financial Review article titled"How Bob Carr became China's pawn", arguing his statements weren't unfounded while also under the protection ofparliamentary privilege.[5][7] After mulling over legal action, Carr announced later the same day would indeed be suing Peters.[8] Peters then ridiculed such threats and compared Carr toChumbawamba, an English band which had not followed through on threats to sue Peters for using their song 'Tubthumping' for political purposes without permission.[9] Prime MinisterChristopher Luxon refused calls to dismiss Peters, his crucial coalition government partner, and has said that "they're not comments I would make. They are comments in the rough and tumble of politics. He is doing an exceptional job".[6][10][11]
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