Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters pictured in Parliament. (File photo) Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
Labour leader Christopher Hipkins says Winston Peters and Christopher Luxon have "basically been calling each other liars" while in coalition government.
Speaking to Morning Report, Hipkins said it was a sign the leaders of National and New Zealand First did not have a "healthy working relationship".
Hipkins was challenged over how Prime Minister Luxon was calling his deputy and Foreign Minister a "liar".
He replied Luxon was "saying he's wrong and saying his numbers are wrong and saying that he's basically not upfront with New Zealanders".
Morning Report's Ingrid Hipkiss said saying a leader was wrong was different to saying they were not telling the truth.
Hipkins said: "They're both effectively saying that of each other."
Labour leader Chris Hipkins. (File photo) Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
He said Peters saying the public was not told the truth about aspects of immigration was "a big claim for the previous Deputy Prime Minister and now Foreign Affairs Minister.
"When you've got the Foreign Affairs Minister saying the Prime Minister's not telling the truth, I think that's an indictment on the current government."
Hipkins comments come after Luxon and Peters disagreed over immigration clauses in the India free trade deal.
Luxon called the clash a "mature disagreement".
NZ First leader Winston Peters claimed it could mean "tens of thousands of people" arriving onshore and taking opportunities "away from New Zealanders".
Peters insisted "the truth wasn't being told to the public".
National strongly denied this. Luxon said Peters was "wrong" about the China FTA and "he's wrong on this one too".
He told Morning Report on Monday: "He had a difference of opinion, he's had a long held view around immigration issues, around Free Trade Agreements. That's well understood, his political party, that's what he believes... he's wrong on that."
Labour and the Greens were due to appear at Waitangi on Tuesday in a show of unity that the two parties were working together.
"We want to send a really clear message that you can disagree, you can work constructively with people, still have disagreements without getting into abuse," Hipkins said.
"If you look at the current government, you've got ministers, senior ministers, taking potshots at one another.
"That's not what MMP should be about."
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