Why hasn’t Cabinet been able to agree on whether to recognise Palestine?

Tuesday, 12 August 2025

Australia followed the UK in confirming they would formally recognise Palestine when the UN General Debate is held during leaders’ week at the end of September.

Opposition parties say New Zealand’s global reputation is plunging while ministers continue to ponder whether to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says this week’s discussion about whether to recognise the state of Palestine was the first time his Cabinet had debated the issue. He said it could take about a month for Cabinet to reach agreement about when, and how, to recognise a Palestinian state.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Winston Peters set a deadline for that decision. He said the Government would agree to a position by the end of September, when he was due to represent New Zealand at the United Nations’ “leaders week” - a coming together of world leaders in New York.

Both Peters and Luxon have faced questions since they came to power in 2023 about whether they would recognise Palestine as a nation.

During the coalition negotiations, when Labour’s Chris Hipkins was the caretaker prime minister, he said he’d raised the issue then.

But given the coalition was unable to agree on the issue, Hipkins said he made a statement as Labour Party leader only - saying New Zealand should recognise Palestine statehood.

Protesters, including this man in Wellington, have called for the Government to recognise Palestine.

On Monday, Luxon said this week’s Cabinet discussion had been triggered by other countries - namely the UK, France and Australia - moving in recent weeks to formally recognise Palestine.

The most recent discussion had been with Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, when they met in Queenstown. There, they both spoke about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and shared their concerns about that.

This decision is part of Australia's efforts to contribute to a two-state solution, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong believe is the best path to end the cycle of violence in the Middle East.

Then on Monday, back in Canberra, Albanese confirmed that Australia would formally recognise Palestinian statehood when world leaders meet at the United Nations next month.

But Luxon wasn’t ready to follow suit on Monday.

Labour says the Government is losing New Zealand’s ‘independence’

During his post-Cabinet press conference, Luxon repeated the mantra that New Zealand had its own “independent foreign policy”. But Hipkins said the prime minister had put that reputation at risk.

“We do seem to be waiting for other countries to take a principled stance before we’re willing to do so. That’s not New Zealand's tradition. We’ve generally stood up for our values and our principles,” he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says the Government is risking New Zealand’s international credibility on foreign policy issues.

He said there could have been bipartisan support to recognise Palestine as early as 2023, but the coalition Government was unable to reach consensus.

“The issues around Palestine and Israel have been apparent since the Government was sworn in. In fact, their reluctance to make any kind of statement caused me - as the then caretaker prime minister - to make a statement as leader of the Labour Party.

“They were unwilling to take action on it. We’re a year and a half down the track now, and any moral leadership they should have shown seems to have well and truly gone out the door,” he said.

Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said Luxon’s coalition ministers were aware of this issue years earlier, when they were in the Opposition.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says Cabinet has started considering whether to recognise Palestine as a state.

“The Greens put forward a motion in Parliament to do this in 2021. National and ACT voted it down. Four years later, those same parties are tying their own hands to do the most basic things,” she said.

Israel’s security cabinet approves plan to occupy Gaza City amid fears for hostages held there. Families protest Netanyahu’s move, calling it a death sentence. Palestinians face daily airstrikes and starvation as global voices demand peace talks.

‘A complicated’ issue - ministers

Luxon defended the time it had taken to start Cabinet discussions about this issue.

“Well, it’s actually, it’s only in recent, the last, you know, two weeks, that you’ve actually seen many of our close partners actually move their positions,” he said, when asked why Cabinet had only just started discussing whether to recognise Palestine.

“So it’s literally within the last two weeks. We actually haven’t had an opportunity to physically come together. It’s a topic that deserves us to have a good in person conversation. But again, we’ve got a process and I don’t want to get ahead of it,” he said.

It appeared that “process” would be further discussions around the Cabinet table. There would be no opportunity for public feedback before Peters was set to depart for New York.

However, Peters said ministers would be taking into account the views held around the country.

His statement said: “It is only right that this complicated issue be approached calmly, cautiously and judiciously. Over the next month, we look forward to canvassing this broad range of views before taking a proposal to Cabinet.”

Within the Government there were differing views on whether to recognise Palestine.

Last month, ACT’s Simon Court made that clear when he asked Peters during a debate at Parliament: “Would recognising the State of Palestine before Hamas has returned the hostages and laid down their weapons constitute a reward for acts of terrorism, and what, if any, conditions should be associated with New Zealand’s recognition of such a State?”

Peters replied, “The answer to the first question is: that’s most likely how it’ll be interpreted. And the second part of the question is: that very condition is part of the request that we are making by way of demands — that they give back the hostages.”

New Zealand’s official position on Israel and Palestine is that there should be a “two state solution”, with an independent Palestinian state. While that is the official policy, New Zealand has not recognised the Palestinian Authority as that Palestinian state.

The Palestinian Authority is not Hamas. New Zealand considers Hamas, the group that controlled Gaza, to be a terrorist organisation.

The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank, but lost control of Gaza due to its own conflict with Hamas.