Cracks in the coalition: Nicola Willis accuses Winston Peters of being ‘very, very confused’ over Iran email release
Thursday, 30 April 2026
National’s Nicola Willis has accused Winston Peters of acting in bad faith and contrary to the coalition agreement in an extraordinary attack following his release of emails on the Iran war.
Willis went so far as to suggest the 81-year-old Peters was so “confused” he could end up going with Labour after the election.
The attack came following a fractious fortnight in politics as National and NZ First have continued to be at odds over the India free trade agreement, Christopher Luxon’s decision to call a confidence vote in himself, and Peters’ decision to release emails on the Iran War.
The emails released by Peters, suggesting Luxon wanted New Zealand to explicitly back the US strikes on Iran, appear to have blind-sided the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Read more:
Peters exposes Luxon’s Iran misspeak for the amateur hour that it was
PM pushed for stronger support of US strikes, emails released by Peters reveal
PM says he misspoke when saying NZ backed ‘any actions’ to stop Iran
“The decision to release these discussions to the media clearly put politics ahead of the national interest,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said.
“The PM would expect Mr Peters to show better judgement after more than 40 years in politics. The PM met with Mr Peters [Wednesday] evening to make that point and Mr Peters acknowledged he made a mistake.”
But Peters suggested his only mistake was one of “process” ‒ saying he should have consulted Luxon about releasing the information.
“Our assumption was that the Prime Minister’s office were doing the same thing. We should have checked that first.”
In an interview with Pacific Media Network he walked back the idea that he had made a mistake at all.
Willis took a swipe at Peters on her way out of the House on Thursday afternoon, telling reporters the Foreign Affairs Minister’s failure to consult PMO amounted to a breach of the ‘no surprises’ principle set out in the National-New Zealand First coalition agreement.
“The coalition agreement sets out very clear that we will act in good faith and in a no surprises fashion. His office failed to uphold those principles.”
Willis said Peters’ office had acted in bad faith by releasing the emails before she suggested Peters himself could not be trusted to keep to his words.
“Judge him by his actions. This is the man who put Jacinda Ardern into the prime ministership,” she said. ”He has said that he won't support a Labour, Green, Te Pāti Māori government, what if he gets confused?”
She suggested Peters had offered multiple explanations for his “mistake” and failed to clear up what exactly he meant.
“One minute it was his mistake, next minute it wasn't a mistake. Now I understand it's a mistake again. The problem with Winston Peters is you never know what you're going to get.”
Peters declined to elaborate on what exactly his mistake had been on his way into the House, but did say that he stood by releasing the email in general ‒ as “it should be disclosed if there’s no good reason not to”.
He declined to comment when asked about Luxon’s suggestion he had acted against the “national interest”.
Willis’ comments come at a tense time for the coalition.
With speculation over Luxon’s leadership put to bed with a confidence vote, National has shifted its attention to the election and come out swinging at NZ First, which is gaining traction ‒ at National’s expense ‒ in the polls.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said the foreign affairs policy “meltdown” was a major fracture in already strained relations between the coalition parties.
“Heaven knows where this goes from here … already we can see … NZ First and National have got their guns on each other, right? This can only increase the disharmony and public fracturing leading up to the election. You start to wonder whether it can go as long as November 7th.”