Labour will ‘never change’ New Zealand’s nuclear-free status, Hipkins says
Sunday, 31 May 2026
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins says his party will “never change” New Zealand’s nuclear-free status.
Defence Minister Chris Penk says New Zealand should have “a conversation” about its anti-nuclear policy.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has previously said New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance is “non-negotiable”.
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins says his party will “never change” New Zealand’s nuclear-free status.
This comes after Defence Minister Chris Penk said New Zealand should have “a conversation” about its long-standing anti-nuclear policy as Australia moves towards acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.
Speaking to Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Penk said New Zealanders had long been sceptical about nuclear weapons, but “it might be an interesting conversation in terms of the extent to which that’s different to nuclear propulsion”.
Australia is working with the US and UK to build and equip a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines under the 2021 Aukus agreement, with the vessels expected to be deployed in the 2030s.
Penk said Australia’s move meant “it would be helpful for us to have that conversation in New Zealand”.
However, Hipkins is having none of it, posting on social media on Sunday that the National Party was putting New Zealand’s nuclear-free status “at risk”.
“Over the weekend, the National Party has told international media that it is open to New Zealand reconsidering its position. This is not something it campaigned on or shared with the New Zealand public,” He said.
“Four decades ago, proud Kiwis took a stand and made a clear choice. We wrote into law that nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels would never enter our waters. Now, National has said it’s time to have a conversation about whether this stays in place.
“Our nuclear-free status remains a defining part of who we are as a nation. For the first time in decades, three more years of National could put that at risk,” Hipkins said.
New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy was enshrined in law in 1987, with the then Labour Government blocking visits by nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has previously been firm that New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance would remain in place.
Speaking alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney in December 2023, Luxon said New Zealand was interested in exploring Aukus Pillar Two, which focuses on advanced technologies, but said the country’s nuclear-free position was “non-negotiable”.
“We will always have our nuclear-free position. That’s non-negotiable for us in New Zealand,” Luxon said at the time.
Albanese also stressed at that 2023 press conference that Australia’s Aukus submarines were nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed, calling it an “important distinction”.
Luxon later told The Australian that whether Aukus submarines could ever visit New Zealand ports was “something we’ll look at”, before making clear there had been no change to New Zealand’s policy, which bans both nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered naval vessels.
Penk’s latest comments come as the Government puts greater emphasis on defence spending and closer military ties with partners.
He told Bloomberg recent instability, including the Iran war, could accelerate New Zealand’s defence spending timeline.
“The events that we have seen recently that highlight the perils of instability mean that we might be bringing forward, if anything, the amount of spending that we’ve indicated,” he said.
The Government’s also announced more than $1.5 billion for Defence in Budget 2026, including military drone systems, critical ship maintenance and naval upgrades aimed at strengthening the country’s maritime security.
The Budget allocation includes an additional $880 million in operating funding and $700m in new capital funding, targeting priority projects under the Defence Capability Plan.
That boost wasn’t enough for US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore that nations should commit 3.5% of their GDP to defence spending.
New Zealand was lifting spending to 2% of GDP, which was “not enough,” Hegseth said, in response to a question from foreign affairs expert and Kiwi journalist Anna Fifield. “2% is freeloading. I don’t have anything against New Zealand, I want partners to step up,” he said.
Penk told Stuff he wasn’t surprised by Hegseth’s comments.
“New Zealand has a clear trajectory on defence spend. The Government has said that this is a floor, not a ceiling, as our fiscal circumstances allow,” he said.