National's Christopher Luxon and Labour's Chris Hipkins have butted heads over potential coalition arrangements and whether Labour has the support of gangs.
In tonight's TVNZ Leaders' Debate, National's leader was asked how he rated himself as a negotiator.
He pointed to his background as a businessman – and when asked if that prepared him for managing ACT leader David Seymour and New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters in a potential coalition, Luxon laughed.
He said: "What it has prepared me for is, I think, to give me some good leadership experience."
Labour has ruled out working with Peters, but National has not, even though ACT and NZ First have clashed in the election lead-up.
The latest 1News Verian Poll shows National and ACT in a position to govern without needing New Zealand First – but it's close.
Labour's leader has ruled out working with the NZ First leader while Luxon has not. (Source: 1News)
Sixty-one is the magic number of seats for a majority, with the poll showing National and ACT holding a combined 62.
NZ First would return with seven seats based on last week's poll results.
"With all due respect Chris, Winston Peters and David Seymour would be running circles around you," Hipkins said.
"Winston Peters brings chaos wherever he goes, I ruled out working with Winston Peters because stable government does not come from working with Winston Peters," the Labour leader said.
Luxon replied: "Labour has had an absolute majority and has not got things done in that term. Imagine when you throw Te Pāti Māori, the Greens – and I'd argue you have got the support of the gangs in there as well – that's not great."
Hipkins called Luxon's assertion "absolutely ridiculous".
"Yes, it's been a challenging three years. For the first nearly two years of this parliamentary term, we were leading the country through a global pandemic. That did make it harder to get things done," he said.
Later in the debate, the pair circled back to the topic of gangs.
Luxon said National would "back the police and tackle the gangs" to bring crime rates down.
Luxon said National would ban gang patches in public places.
Hipkins replied: "You cut the [police] funding last time you were in Government."
Luxon responded: "You actually gave them [gangs] funding, you gave them $2.7 million to do meth rehab."
Academics at Auckland University's Public Policy Institute found this claim was "mostly true".
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