Green Party leader James Shaw rules out contacting National

Green Party leader James Shaw says "everything is on the table" as coalition talks begin, but he won't be calling the National Party.

Shaw will speak with Labour leader Jacinda Ardern on the phone this afternoon, and will meet with her in person tomorrow. He will approach NZ First leader Winston Peters in the next few days.

Shaw said he would not being making contact with National, but he would take a call from National leader Bill English.

"It's my responsibility to do so. And we'll have to see what they've got to say. But one of the things I will be saying in return is 'You know we campaigned on a change of government and you know what was in our manifesto ... and how incongruous that is to what the National Party policy programme is'."

Shaw said his party would not settle for a confidence and supply agreement with Labour and NZ First and it wanted to be a "full partner" in any coalition. Anything less would be too unstable and would risk not lasting a full three-year term.

He accepted that his party would have to make some significant compromises to go into coalition with NZ First. The two parties have a patchy history.

Former Green co-leader Metiria Turei once called Peters a racist, and in the lead-up to the election the Greens released their calculations of NZ First's policies, saying that they would lift spending by between $10 billion and $15 billion.

"I'm not fussed about some of the things we said before the election," Shaw said. "If you look at history, when it comes to NZ First, everything is up for negotiation."

Shaw did not give any specific bottom lines, only saying that the party would prioritise climate change, ending poverty and cleaner rivers in any negotiations.

The Green Party would carry out a review of its election result, but Shaw said he did not believe a change of direction was needed. The party had no plans to become a more centrist party or focus more narrowly on environmental issues.

The Green Party won 5.9 per cent of the party vote, giving it seven MPs. Shaw was certain that special votes would deliver the party an eighth MP, Golriz Gahrahman.

"She will be joining us in Parliament. We only need to 0.13 per cent of the special vote to come in."