Coalition Infighting and Treaty Obligations w/ The National Party's Ryan Hamilton: 5 May, 2026

Last week, publicised tensions between Governing coalition members continued to grow as Foreign Minister Winston Peters released emails from Prime MInister Christopher Luxon from immediately after the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which seemed to show the Prime Minister considering an explicitly pro-US stance. Since the release of the emails, Luxon has said the emails mischaracterised his position and accused Peters of ‘playing politics’, while Peters has since apologised and chalked the release down to an error. The row has, however, sparked a range of voices commenting on the perceived conflict between the two parties, looking forward to this year's election.

Tensions have also popped up last week between the ACT Party and NZ First, after the two parties traded barbs over each other's immigration policy.

Last week also saw the reveal of proposed changes to Treaty Obligations. The changes would make it so the required level of engagement with Te Tiriti across government decisions would be to ‘take the treaty into account’.

Host Alex spoke with National Party MP Ryan Hamilton about these topics, starting with the released emails.