Labour campaign chairperson Kieran McAnulty has again stopped short of ruling out a post-election governing coalition with New Zealand First, calling it only "highly unlikely" while he flatly ruled out working with ACT.
Speaking to Q+A from Labour's annual conference in Wellington, McAnulty was pressed by interviewer Jack Tame on who Labour might govern with after predicting the party had "a genuine shot" of forming a government with "one other party".
"Well, it won't be ACT, and it's highly unlikely to be New Zealand First the way they're carrying on, but so far, the field remains open."
McAnulty left the door ajar to Winston Peters' party, in contrast to an outright rejection of ACT, and echoed the position Labour leader Chris Hipkins set out earlier this year.
The campaign chairperson also played down the prospect of relying on Te Pāti Māori, pointing to Labour's bid to reclaim the Māori seats.
"Probably won't be Te Pāti Māori either, because I suspect we're going to win their seats back. So, you know, we're narrowing down, aren't we?" he said.
Hipkins told Breakfast in February he would not rule New Zealand First in or out, saying the party's "posturing" was making any arrangement "very difficult".
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has previously been emphatic that the door is shut from his side. Last week, he angrily rejected a question about whether he might side with Labour after the election during an interview, calling it a "wanker question".
"What's wrong with you people? Do I need to come and put a brand on your head? We're not going with Labour - I haven't been around this long to come on this programme to talk about that sort of wanker question," Peters said on Herald Now.
But his coalition partners National and ACT have publicly expressed uncertainty about whether Peters, who went with Labour in 2005 and 2017, might not follow through.
McAnulty didn't name who he had in mind as realistic coalition partners, though the Greens would be an obvious choice.
Asked whether Labour could theoretically work with Opportunity and Qiulae Wong, which scored a record 4.6% in last week's 1News Verian poll, McAnulty did not rule it out, but said the party first had to prove it could get into Parliament.
A new 1News Verian poll put the party on the cusp of making it into Parliament for the first time. (Source: 1News)
"They've said they can work with either side, and so that's something that people are going to have to weigh up as to whether they're comfortable with a vote for them going to a side that they don't support," he said.
"But we haven't said that we're not willing to work with them. At this stage, they are yet to reach the 5%."
Pressed on the risk of being the highest-polling party without enough support to govern, McAnulty said he was confident in the numbers.
"I think we're a genuine shot of being able to form a government with the support of one other party," he said.
Labour is standing candidates in all seven Māori electorates, seeking to take the six seats Te Pāti Māori won at the last election.
Opportunity knocks at 5% threshold as both Labour and National have taken falls. (Source: 1News)
McAnulty rejected the suggestion the party was attacking a likely coalition partner, saying Labour had "never said that they were a coalition partner – that's just people's assumptions".
Electoral and housing battlelines
McAnulty used the interview to sharpen Labour's lines on the government's record, accusing it of changing electoral law to its own advantage.
Labour would "take every opportunity we can to point out that the Government has tried to screw the scrum in their favour," he said, with voters no longer able to enrol in the final days before the election or on polling day itself.
"It's there for all to see why this Government have tried to gerrymander things a little bit."
He also committed to unwinding the Government's changes to contributions for social housing rents, which raises tenants' contribution from 25% to 30% of their income.
Asked if Labour would restore the previous settings, he said: "If we're in Government, we will not be fulfilling those ... next year. Absolutely not."
The rent change was announced as part of Budget 2026, alongside a wider multi-year overhaul of the social housing system, the Government said would make support "fairer, better targeted, and more focused on encouraging independence".
Reversing the rental changes was among the items National's Nicola Willis costed against Labour last month, which put the measure at $542 million over the forecast period as part of an alleged $18.2 billion gap in Labour's spending plans.
Watch the full interview in the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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