Winston Peters' major foreign policy speech at Parliament is attracting criticism from Helen Clark, who described the address as "very defensive".
On Wednesday night, during the speech, the Foreign Affairs Minister once again reaffirmed his team was looking into AUKUS and if New Zealand would join pillar 2 of the alliance.
The idea of joining pillar 2 is being opposed by Labour, despite the party saying it was "willing to explore it" while in Government.
Speaking to AM on Thursday, former Prime Minister Clark criticised Peters' speech.
"I thought his speech was, really, very, very defensive," she said.
"He was walking back on comments that he made in Washington, DC where he got somewhat ahead of himself and the Government.
"When he was with Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State in Washington, DC, he said there were... 'Powerful reasons for New Zealand engaging with AUKUS.' Now, he would not elaborate on the 'powerful reasons' last night, he claimed that they were still just exploring the issues and then abused those who are criticising the proposal for not having information - information he won't share and now, doesn't really want to stand by what he said in Washington, DC."
Clark went on to say there were some serious questions to be answered.
"When you stand with the [US] Secretary of State and say... 'There are powerful reasons for engaging with AUKUS', you owe it to the Kiwi public to say what those reasons are and we're not hearing that. We're hearing a lot of bluster, a lot of personal abuse - put that aside."
Asked by Newstalk ZB on Thursday about the opposition to pillar 2, Peters said he believed Labour had "fallen for the politics of outsiders".
"By that, I mean, the former Prime Minister - who last got her briefings 16 years ago... she's got tweets out there.
"How come on such a subject like this - you have no sense of how important it is - [you're] having your conversations in tweets? It's far more serious than that," Peters told ZB.
But Labour foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker, like Clark, has questioned the Government's stance on AUKUS.
"Well, they're making very strong noises that they're going to join it," he told Newshub last month.
"There hasn’t been much public scrutiny about what the risks and the benefits are of joining it. We think that’s a major shift in foreign policy."
But Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the policy hadn't changed since Labour was in Government.
"All we're saying is that we're open to exploring opportunities under pillar 2 under AUKUS."
Newshub.
