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Download AudioWinston Peters says New Zealand First is back to bring experience and common sense to the government.
Mr Peters has already broken bread with National Party leader Chris Luxon, but negotiations will start in earnest once the final vote count is delivered at 2pm.
New Zealand First is sure to retain its eight MPs, but National and ACT could drop slightly if special votes show their normal trend of favouring the left.
This election that could favour the Greens and Te Pati Maori more than Labour, with the Maori Party hoping to pick up Tamaki Makaurau and Te Taitokerau.
Mr Peters says the result shows how the 2020 election run at the height of the Covid pandemic was an anomaly.
“All sorts of claims were made on fear as opposed to the long term sound governance of New Zealand and the moment New Zealand First was gone there was a monthly mess, day in, week in and week out and the Labour Party is in demise now because of the way they went ahead before the 2020 election and after it. We warned about that but things take time to prove to people it’s a fact but there’s no substitute for experience and common sense in government, make no bones about that,” he says.
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