New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has arrived for coalition negotiation talks with National at Auckland's Cordis hotel - but not before briefly sparring with the media outside.
Arriving shortly after midday today, Peters emerged from his car, responding to a reporters' question "how are you?" with a courteous "I'm very well, and yourselves?"
But it wasn't long before Peters became more robust, telling one reporter their column was "absolute rubbish".
The opinion piece had argued Peters was getting the upper hand over Christopher Luxon.
Asked if he believed he would be able to resolve any policy disagreements in the negotiations today, Peters said the answer was not just with him alone.
He said anyone who entered negotiations believing they would get everything they wanted were "in for an obvious mistake".
Peters said parties were "going as fast as we possibly can" to finalise a coalition agreement.
"None of this conversation with you guys is worth anything because you don't understand the confidentiality of the arrangements we're entering into. If you want to build trust, you don't go and tell the whole world what you're going to do next."
He then ignored further questions and continued into the hotel, saying over his shoulder: "You see what I mean?"
The exchange lasted around two minutes - but reporters would have been appreciative for those minutes, as Peters also sometimes prefers to ignore them.
It comes after National leader Christopher Luxon spoke with reporters for about six and a half minutes this morning. ACT leader David Seymour also appeared on TVNZ's Breakfast programme today.
Luxon said he expected talks to continue through the weekend.
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