Politics Blog - April 29 - May 5

Foreign Minister Winston Peters reminded reporters he wasn't at his "first legal rodeo", when asked about comments by former Australian foreign affairs minister Bob Carr that Peters had defamed him and he would be taking legal action.

Peters made allegations about Carr and his closeness to China in a live interview on RNZ’s Morning Report.

A spokesperson for Carr said he would commence legal action as a result.

In a speech on Friday about New Zealand's relationship with China, Peters said the world had become "more fractious".

Peters was asked by a reporter afterwards whether a "war of words with other former foreign ministers might contribute to a more fractious world".

The question was "off the subject", Peters said.

"This is not my first legal rodeo either", he added.

He would not be "cowed" by threats of legal action, Peters said.

"I've had so many lawyers calling me and saying, 'Winston I want to be in'."

He then ran through a list of some of his previous legal wins.

Carr has been a vocal critic of the Aukus pact, and travelled to this country last month to take part in a Labour Party-hosted Aukus summit.

"I've been on the stage internationally for a long time, and I'd never go and talk to any country and tell them what they should be doing," Peters said on Friday.

"I would never go to another country and start telling them what to do on a major issue like that."

"I'm a nationalist who believes that as one of the world's greatest democracies ... that we've got a right to be proud and not to be interfered with in that context, and make up our own mind."