Green Party co-leader James Shaw has made it clear the party wants a deal with Labour - and a place in Cabinet.
Appearing on TVNZ's Q&A programme this morning, Shaw confirmed he talked to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last night, but was coy on the details - saying only that they had congratulated each other.
Discussions about the makeup of the new government would come later, he said.
Commentators noted that Ardern didn't mention the Green Party during her victory speech at the Auckland Town Hall last night.
Labour has the numbers to govern alone - the first time since 1996, and the first time under MMP, that a NZ political party has been in that position.
Shaw said he was ecstatic about the Greens' result - and especially Chloe Swarbrick's win in Auckland Central.
Swarbrick becomes only the second Green MP to win an electorate seat - 21 years after party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons won the Coromandel seat, which she held for just one term.
With 100 per cent of the vote counted, Swarbrick had a winning margin of 492 votes. She was sitting on 9060 votes, to 8568 for Labour's Helen White and 7566 for National's Emma Mellow.
Labour's Grant Robertson - who is being tipped by some to be the new deputy prime minister - told Q&A it was too soon to discuss a possible deal with the Greens.
He said he was proud and humbled by the mandate handed to Labour.
Robertson romped home in Wellington Central, beating National's Nicola Willis.
By Sunday morning, almost 2.4 million votes in NZ's general election had been counted.
Labour has 49.1 per cent of the vote and National 26.8 per cent. The Greens have 7.6 per cent of the vote, while Act is on 8 per cent. New Zealand First is well short of the threshold, at 2.7 per cent.
About 480,000 special declaration votes are still be counted - representing about 17 per cent of total votes.
Almost 70 per cent of votes were cast in advance - up from 47 per cent in 2017.
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