NZ need not worry about a nuclear power ‘bogeyman’, says new US ambassador Jared Novelly
Friday, 3 July 2026
The new US ambassador to New Zealand, Jared Novelly, wants to get in a time machine and return to the 1980s to get a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier into Auckland harbour and stage a basketball game on its flight deck.
“You need to see these things and realise that … it's not some sort of bogeyman that you have to worry about,” the billionaire businessman and sports tycoon told The Post in a media conference on Friday.
“I'd really like the opportunity to work with New Zealand on that exact topic.”
New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy has not been touched since it became law in 1987, after the Labour Government refused the USS Buchanan entry because the United States would neither confirm nor deny that the warship had nuclear capability.
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This policy has entered the public discourse more recently in the context of conversations about New Zealand’s potential involvement in Pillar 2 of the Aukus (Australia, the United Kingdom and the US) security pact.
Australia ‒ New Zealand’s only formal defence ally ‒ is acquiring second-hand nuclear-powered submarines from the US as part of Aukus Pillar 1. These vessels would not be permitted to visit New Zealand under the current law.
Novelly is several days into his posting but has lived part-time in Australia for close to a decade and seems well aware of how sensitive this topic is for the New Zealand public.
“It was the first thing I was briefed on. It's not my fight, it's up to you. I'm not here to change your mind. I'm here to respect your opinions,” he told The Post.
Despite Novelly’s bold suggestion it would only take the spectacle of a basketball game on a nuclear-powered vessel to persuade New Zealand to change its long-standing nuclear free position, he had not got a sense there was any political appetite to revisit it.
“In the last 18 hours, I haven’t found it,” he said.
Speaking at a defence summit in Singapore last month, Defence Minister Chris Penk said it could be “helpful” for New Zealand to have a conversation about its long-standing nuclear-free policy.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was quick to rule out any changes, saying the policy has not and will not change.
It was clear from Novelly’s answers to media questions that he’d been briefed on New Zealand’s nuclear power policy, military spending, critical mineral reserves in the Pacific, a poll showing cooling public sentiment towards the US and the film industry.
The Missouri-born diplomat began the 30-minute sit-down at his residence in Lower Hutt by explaining his background. Having started out at a cold storage warehouse, he went on to work at Blockbuster Video before moving into telecommunications, the oil business and real estate.
He starting living in Australia part-time about eight years ago, got a master’s degree, bought the Australian basketball team the Illawarra Hawks and then got the New Zealand posting because ‒ in his words ‒ he kept saying “pretty please”.
The billionaire is also the US ambassador to Samoa and New Zealand realm countries the Cook Islands and Niue.
He said he expected to spend a lot of time in the Cook Islands talking about how “terrifying” it was that Africa and China controlled most of the world’s cobalt resources.
“Cobalt is important for important alloys, batteries, any number of things that it's crucial for us to diversify our supply chain for our national security, for your national security, for your iPhones.
“It is crucial that we have multiple sources for this. Just so happens that the Cook Islands is one of the richest, most vastest resources of that in their exclusive economic zone on the seabed floor.
“It is something that would be transformative for the Cook Islands.”
America’s presence in the Pacific has ebbed and flowed over the years; US President Donald Trump’s administration dismantled USAid in 2025 impacting hundreds of jobs, projects and activities in the region.
It’s Novelly’s view that China has created “debt traps” for Pacific countries wanting to build big-ticket infrastructure projects, and he would be talking to Pacific leaders about this during his time in the role ”so they know what a debt trap is“.
“China has made no bones about that they want a base in the Pacific, they want expanded presence there.
“The responsible thing for me to do as a good friend to the Pacific Islanders that I speak to is make sure that they realise that there can be strings attached.”
Asked why small island nations looking for financial support should say no to China when the US had withdrawn from the region, Novelly hinted investment was on the way.
“A lot of this I can't talk about yet but … there's lots of opportunities that we can come up with to benefit other countries besides just handing them aid.”
Novelly defended Trump as a “disruptor in the Oval Office”, and said a recent Asia New Zealand Foundation poll that found New Zealanders’ sentiment towards China had warmed while it had cooled against the US - was “disappointing”
“I'm very disappointed. I don't mean to scold New Zealanders, but [I am] disappointed that they feel that way.
“You know what you know about President Trump, and you know what you know about America, because of the free press and … that's what's done here as well. That's not what you get in China, so I question the poll of whether you really know who your friends are, if that's what they say.”
On military spending, Novelly said it was important New Zealand cared as much about its defence as the US did, adding he thought an uptick on investment was necessary for the country’s safety and prosperity.
He defended the US’ role in the Iran war, including higher oil prices.
“A nuclear-powered Iran would be an existential threat to everybody on the planet. So, period, end of story on Iran having nuclear weapons.
“In terms of fuel prices, hopefully talks are ongoing. Hopefully, we're going to have peace soon and the fuel prices are going to return to normalcy. And as a plug, the US is a net exporter. You want oil, I got oil for you.”