National leader Judith Collins says New Zealand's place in Five Eyes is now seriously under threat.

She says New Zealand is in a situation where our biggest trading partner is in a dispute with our biggest security arrangement.

Judith Collins told Mike Yardley she's particularly concerned about former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer calling Five Eyes  "four eyes and a wink".

But one of his former contemporaries Sir Don McKinnon applauded Nanaia Mahuta's speech earlier this week regarding Five Eyes.

He told Newstalk ZB the New Zealand Foreign Minister used measured, middle of the road rhetoric.

Jacinda Ardern is yet to comment.

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