Indicating coalition talks will be quick

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

An expectation of swift coalition negotiations after the final vote count is released on Friday afternoon has been raised by NZ First leader Winston Peters, in his first major interview since election night.

Speaking to Sean Plunket of online radio station The Platform on Monday, Peters said: “I think this can be done much more quickly than people think . . . if people get into the room and don’t muck around.”

He referenced the importance of New Zealand’s attendance at the Pacific Islands Forum from November 6-10, and the Apec Leaders’ Summit in San Fransisco from November 15-17 — events that Christopher Luxon as the next Prime Minister would be interested in attending.

There was no hint of any detail from negotiations, as agreed with Luxon and “because we’re all waiting around for November 3 to know exactly what it is we’re dealing with”.

Asked about the country’s most pressing issues, Peters said they were the cost of living, crime and the health system in that order.

Yesterday it was Act leader David Seymour’s turn with Plunket and he agreed there was a framework for National and his party from “extensive discussions”, and that negotiating shouldn’t take too long.

He hadn’t had any conversations yet with Peters. “At some point we may do but we’ve been focused on getting a workout of what an arrangement looks like with the Nats, so that whether or not we need a third party, we have got some clear understandings.”

Anything could happen with the special votes, and he gave various scenarios that added up to National and Act retaining a majority.

However, “There’s a received wisdom that the specials go against the right and that National/Act will lose one or two seats and that will take us back to a dead heat where you need a three-way coalition — and I think that probably is, based on what we know from past elections, the most likely outcome.”

Act believed coalition negotiations could be done within a week.

“If there is a three-way coalition, then I think Act and National will be in a pretty good space; the question will be . . . the third party has a long history of long negotiations, but hopefully this one is different.”

Plunket replied that Peters told him on Monday he wouldn’t get in the way, thought there was a pretty straight forward deal to be done and he didn’t want to delay a new government getting down to business: “I actually thought they were very, very positive vibes he was giving out.”

Seymour: “Let’s hope that’s the case, because certainly New Zealand could use a Government that is ready to roll up its sleeves and get business under way from day one.”