Peters gets cold shoulder

Winston Peters

Winston Peters is being shut out in the cold by parties increasingly terrified he could hold the balance of power after the election.

But that's just the way he likes it - and last night he snapped back at his detractors as "obsessed with power".

"It seems extraordinary that other leaders think their campaign is about who they want to go with, when if they had any integrity it would be about the policies they are presenting," he said.

The leaders of Labour, United Future, the Greens and Act all now say they would have difficulty working with NZ First.

Two polls in past days have shown Labour and NZ First pulling together enough support to form a majority government without needing the support of any other party.

Any other alternative - a National-led government or a Labour-led government of the left - would require three or more parties to pull together.

A TV3-TNS poll showed Labour on 40 per cent, National on 36 per cent and NZ First on 11 per cent. And yesterday's Fairfax-ACNielsen poll showed Labour on 40 per cent, National 38 per cent and NZ First 9 per cent.

Hard on the heels of NZ First's tough "flying squad" immigration policy, Mr Peters will on Tuesday announce a Treaty of Waitangi policy criticising public money being spent on "political correctness".

"Why are we spending millions of dollars teaching public servants to say 'kia ora' and 'no' when a simple 'hello' and 'yes' will suffice?"

Prime Minister Helen Clark signalled on Friday that she would rather work with her existing support partners - the Progressives, United Future and the Greens - than negotiate with NZ First again.

"I do have the experience of going through nine weeks of negotiations in 1996 ... and I don't think that's an experience New Zealand wants to repeat," she told Radio Live.

Mr Peters said she had behaved deceptively in those negotiations, claiming to have the Alliance in her pocket. "None of us is looking forward to negotiating with Helen Clark if that's the kind of thing we have to put up with."

He said Helen Clark was "obsessed with social engineering", and National leader Don Brash was "a neo-liberal pursuing policies that have never worked anywhere in the world, and won't work here".

Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is to speak at a rally against racism in Grey Lynn today.

In her strongest ultimatum yet, Ms Fitzsimons told the Herald on Sunday the Greens would not work with any government that implemented NZ First's "racist" immigration policies. "We would not be part of a government that adopted a policy of flying squads to target new migrants - that would lead us back to the days of dawn raids. We would probably not even support such a government," she said.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said his party would be "very uncomfortable" as part of any government that included NZ First.

"We utterly reject their xenophobic neo-racist immigration policies, and we have no truck with those," he said. "The only certain thing you could say is that having NZ First anywhere in the mix guarantees that the government won't last [a] full term."

And Act leader Rodney Hide also ruled out joining any National-NZ First coalition.

"Winston is unstable in government: he puts himself first, not the country, and he's got the wrong policies for New Zealand. We wouldn't sit around a Cabinet table with Winston," he said.

But National leader Don Brash was ruling nothing out: "Our aim is to be the largest party in Parliament. We will deal with whatever the electorate delivers on election night."

Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said his party would talk with whoever necessary, but it would not compromise on protecting Maori land and language, and recognition of the Treaty.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY