Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's first official visit since taking office will be to Sydney, where he will meet Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The prime minister has committed to prioritising defence and security in his first discussions with his Australian opposite number.
Christopher Luxon will travel to Sydney on Wednesday, on his first official visit since taking office, where he will meet with Anthony Albanese.
Luxon said his priority "first and foremost" was being a good security partner in the region, and was looking forward to discussing the close security and defence relationship between the two countries.
"I want us to be higher intensity, higher engagement. I don't ever want to take the relationship with Australia for granted," he said.
Luxon would not say whether he felt the previous government had taken the relationship for granted in the security space, only that his government would work constructively with Australia.
"I just want to make sure that we're a good partner and holding up our end."
The emphasis on defence and security prompted questions over whether Luxon intended to move quickly on joining the AUKUS security arrangement.
Minister of Defence Judith Collins has indicated her disappointment the previous government did not do more to include New Zealand in pillar two of the deal.
While the first pillar of AUKUS has allowed for the construction of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, pillar two involves the sharing of non-nuclear technology.
New Zealand's nuclear-free status would make joining pillar one impossible, and Luxon was adamant his stance would not change.
"That's non-negotiable. But AUKUS pillar two is rather undefined. It's not in the nuclear space, it's in other areas. As the previous government has said, our position remains the same, which is we're open to exploring what it all means, given it's so undefined," he said.
Robert Patman, professor of politics and international relations at the University of Otago, said it was more likely the Australians would want to know how much money Luxon's government intended to spend on defence.
"I think the Australians would love for New Zealand to spend more on defence, that would be the biggest commitment the Australians are looking for," he said.
Patman said if New Zealand wanted enhanced security, Australia would want to know it was doing its fair share.
So far, there has been no commitment from Luxon to increase defence spending.
Labour's defence spokesperson Peeni Henare said he was yet to see any indication from the government of where it would be taking defence.
"It's now time for this government to put their money where their mouth is," he said.
Henare said the previous government had a good relationship with Australia when it came to defence and security.
"Any kind of suggestion that there wasn't a close or dynamic relationship between ourselves and Australia I think is the wrong way to describe it. This requires now that the prime minister and this new government will need to start actually becoming more than just words."
Patman said Australia and New Zealand saw their security challenges as indivisible, with an interest in the Pacific Islands states region, and the Indo-Pacific region.
He said as its closest partner, it was a tradition for New Zealand prime ministers to make Australia their first port of call.
"It's a very important relationship, and I think there's a bipartisan commitment across the political divide towards that relationship."
He believed it was possible that American domestic politics would be raised.
While relationships between Australian and New Zealand administrations were often good regarding of the political stripes of those in charge, Patman said the possibility of Donald Trump returning to power in the US was another matter.
"It's one thing to join something like AUKUS when Mr Biden is seen as the pivotal leader. It's quite another thing if Mr Trump was going to be in charge, because Mr Trump basically has a vision of the world which is almost in the opposite direction to the sort of world-view that New Zealand has."
