Former prime minister Sir John Key says Christopher Luxon can trust Winston Peters if he needs to.
According to 1News' latest Verian poll, National would have 46 seats and ACT would have 13 seats, bringing Christopher Luxon’s “preferred” coalition partnership to 59 seats, two shy of the required 61 to form a government.
New Zealand First’s eight seats would round its numbers out to 67, a comfortable majority that would be reasonably by-election-proof.
Sir John told Breakfast this morning that a National-ACT-NZ First coalition wouldn't be ideal, but Luxon could make it work if it mean National was in government.
With 10 days left until election day, Labour is staring at defeat, while National's hopes of a two-party coalition are on thin ice. (Source: 1News)
"They can make it work if they have to but the truth is, what I'd like to see is the strongest National vote and frankly if that vote could be 51% then we won't have to worry about anybody."
"Can Chris Luxon trust Winston Peters? Well I'd say on the basis of the public comments he said, yeah actually he probably can trust him to come with National if required."
Asked where he sees ACT and NZ First butting heads policy wise, Sir John said it'll be about each party's spending.
He said Peters and NZ First have "typically been quite big spenders" whereas ACT wants lower Government spending.
"So that's a natural area of conflict."
"It probably wouldn't be on the race issues because they're both saying pretty similar messages around co-governance and different things there."
Luxon has previously warned the public of the possibility of New Zealand First entering into a deal with the left bloc, saying both Peters and Labour leader Chris Hipkins could reverse on their refusals to work with one another.
But with even NZ First’s numbers, the left bloc would have only a tenuous majority on 61, based on the poll.
The recent 1News Verian poll also showed New Zealanders were gradually making up their minds about who they would vote for, with the don’t know / refused to answer portion on 10%, down one point on the last poll.
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