New Zealand Labour leader Jacinda Ardern conceded her party should not have involved itself in the dual citizenship scandal which is threatening the Australian government’s hold on power.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop held an extraordinary press conference in Parliament on Tuesday where she claimed she would find it "difficult to build trust" with NZ Labour if it won the country's election next month.
She added the Australian Labor Party and NZ Labour put the alliance between the two countries "at risk".
Ms Ardern held a press conference in Wellington to hit back at those claims.
"We have been implicated far beyond what we should have been,” she told reporters.
"I am not going to escalate this situation, my resolve is to make sure we get our relationship back on track, I am not going to let this issue get in the way of that."
Ms Ardern claimed it was an Australian Labor Party staffer who first contacted a counterpart in New Zealand, which led to a Labor MP raising questions that eventually resulted in Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's apparent dual citizenship being revealed.
"This shouldn’t have happened, but ultimately it was questions raised by the media that caused this situation, rather than questions by us," she said.
The saga around Mr Joyce's citizenship has led to accusation and counter accusation between parties on both sides of the Tasman Sea.
Australia's Foreign Minister said Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was to blame.
"He needs to reveal his involvement in what is treacherous behaviour," she said.
"Bill Shorten has sought to use a foreign political party to raise serious allegations in a foreign Parliament designed to undermine confidence in the Australian Government."
In a raucous session of Parliament on Tuesday, shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said Ms Bishop was trying to distract from Mr Joyce's failure to determine his citizenship.
"Newsflash: the Labor Party's not responsible for Barnaby Joyce's dad being a New Zealander," she told the Senate.
"The central political strategy of this government at the moment is the 'Kiwis under the bed' scare campaign."
NZ Labour's involvement in the saga began on August 9, when New Zealand MP Chris Hipkins lodged a question with the Minister of Internal Affairs asking if the child of a New Zealand father would automatically have New Zealand citizenship.
“At no point did anybody involved in the ALP ask me to ask that question,” he told reporters earlier on Tuesday before his leader’s comments.
“This was a question I lodged, I wrote it, I wanted to know the answer,” he said.
“The lesson for me in this is where it potentially might involve the politics of another country, a little bit more homework and background checking before getting involved would be a useful thing to do.”
New Zealand’s Prime Minister also admonished Mr Hipkins.
‘I can't remember another time when an MP has done something like that that involves the domestic politics of another country,” Prime Minister English said.
“Whatever views we have, other countries run their politics. We don’t want them interfering in ours.”
