Labour's Chris Hipkins criticised the way a National MP invited Ukraine’s president to address New Zealand's Parliament, calling it “undiplomatic” and “almost embarrassing”.
It comes after Simon O’Connor lodged a motion on Tuesday for the House to send an invitation to Volodymyr Zelensky to speak, as he had done with lawmakers in Australia, the UK, the US and others. The motion appeared in Wednesday's order paper, which sets out the House's agenda.
When asked at Wednesday’s press conference, Hipkins criticised the motion because O'Connor hadn't found out first if Zelensky would be willing to.
“It’s somewhat undiplomatic and almost embarrassing for the New Zealand Parliament to move a motion like that," Hipkins, who is Leader of the House, said.
"If the New Zealand Parliament was going to pass such a motion, we would only do that after we'd established if that's something the Ukrainian president would actually welcome."
He added: “I don’t think that’s the sort of politicking we’d like to see in a situation like this.”
In response to whether he would like to see Zelensky address the House, Hipkins said: “I wouldn’t want to put him in a position where we formally issued an invitation which he then felt he either had to do despite not having the time to do it or had to turn down.
“We do have to rely on diplomacy here, rather than the politicking that is clearly evident in the fact that that motion has been put on Parliament’s order paper.”
In a statement to 1News, O'Connor said some people had asked him to lodge the motion.
"Ultimately this is a decision for the Government. Though it would be great to hear from President Zelensky, he has much bigger issues to focus on right now."
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she was aware that Zelensky had addressed several parliaments across the world.
“That’s a matter for him to make the request.”
O’Connor’s motion did not have the support of National Party leader Christopher Luxon, who said: “I can imagine President Zelensky is very busy doing some other things at the moment.
“I think it’s very unlikely to happen.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced further contributions to help Ukraine on Monday, as fighting continued in the country after Russia's invasion.
She said New Zealand would be sending a C-130 Hercules aircraft with a team of 50 Defence Force personnel to Europe.
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