Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has no intention of following the example of her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, by banning ministers from having sexual relations with their staff.
"My ministers have a very clear sense of the expectations that we have of them in terms of their behaviour," she said at her post Cabinet press conference on Monday.
"That cuts across a wide area. I do not believe at this time that that is the kind of thing that is necessary for our New Zealand ministers."
Asked if ministers would be sacked if they had sex with their staff, she said there was a high standard of expectations for ministers "and I wouldn't want to have be in a position of having to consider that kind of thing."
"My expectation is that I will not have to deal with a hypothetical like that."
Turnbull laid down the new rule for ministers after his deputy Prime Minister and Nationals coalition leader Barnaby Joyce became engulfed in a scandal over his new live-in partner, Vikki Campion, his former press secretary, who is now pregnant.
The affair ended his marriage of 24 years to Natalie Joyce with whom he has four daughters.
The scandal spread to employment issues, and whether a job was created for Campion to move from Joyce's to another minister's office in Parliament once news of their relationship became known at Parliament.
It has caused a serious rift between Turnbull and Joyce, and Turnbull put Joyce on leave this week while he is visiting the United States to avoid leaving Joyce as acting Prime Minister.
Joyce faced a by-election last year, successfully, when he was forced to resign when he was found to have held New Zealand citizenship from his father.