The Prime Minister's office is ruling out any changes to the country's nuclear free status, saying the policy has not and will not change.
It comes after Defence Minister Chris Penk's comments on Saturday that New Zealand should have a "conversation" on its anti-nuclear stance drew the ire of the Labour Party, which called on the government to clarify its position.
Speaking to Bloomberg at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security and defence forum in Singapore, Penk was asked whether New Zealand would consider easing its nuclear-free policies to allow nuclear-powered submarines into New Zealand waters.
There was no "official or even unofficial" change in New Zealand government policy along those lines, Penk said, but it would be "helpful" for the country to have "a conversation", given Australia was slated to acquire three nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS deal.
"Traditionally the New Zealand public has been very sceptical about nuclear weapons, which might be an interesting conversation in terms of the extent to which that's different to nuclear propulsion," he said.
"And of course our only formal ally is that now, being Australia, acquiring the nuclear-powered submarines, means it would be helpful I think for us to have that conversation in New Zealand."
Upon the signing of the Aukus pact in 2021, the then-Labour government immediately announced the nuclear-powered submarines acquired through the deal would be banned from New Zealand waters.
That position did not change when the government did, with National's leader, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, saying New Zealand's non-nuclear stance was non-negotiable.
"As the Defence Minister stated in his answer, New Zealand's nuclear-free position has not changed and it will not be changing," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson confirmed National would not have an election policy this year to change New Zealand's nuclear stance either.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Penk's comments came shortly after the Prime Minister had expressed an openness to looking at fusion, as part of the government's "and, and, and" approach to exploring energy options.
"A few weeks ago we had Christopher Luxon saying that National was open to nuclear-powered generation in New Zealand, now you've got Chris Penk as Minister of Defence saying we're open to nuclear propulsion for Navy ships," Hipkins said.
"It all paints a picture of a National government that thinks nuclear is an option for New Zealand. New Zealand's been proudly nuclear-free and we should stay that way."
Hipkins said New Zealanders were more worried about how they could pay their power bills, fill up their cars, and afford to go to the supermarket.
"They're not lying in bed at night thinking, gosh, I wonder if New Zealand should rethink its nuclear-free stance."
Penk also told Bloomberg that New Zealand was on track to meet its goal of doubling the defence budget to 2 percent of GDP.
The war in Iran had highlighted the "perils of instability" and could lead the government to bring forward the timeline for reaching that goal, he said.
