KEY POINTS:
National Party leader John Key says he's open to talking with potential coalition partners "with the exception of New Zealand First".
Act, the United Party, the Maori Party and "potentially" the Greens all got a mention from Mr Key as possible coalition partners should National not win enough votes to govern alone.
But Mr Key, who spoke to a packed lecture hall at Waikato University's school of management yesterday, said there was no room for embattled NZ First leader Winston Peters.
"The way we look at it is we're happy to have good-faith negotiations with any political party that wants to have negotiations with us - with the exception of New Zealand First," he said.
"So he's gone."
He said Mr Peters' remark that National needed NZ First's help should it not have enough votes to govern alone were a "kind of nonsense. Think it through. If National needs him, that means he holds the balance of power.
"If he holds the balance of power, Winston is going with Labour, it's as simple as that."
Mr Key said the Labour Party organised the donation from expatriate billionaire Owen Glenn to Mr Peters and said the two parties had an agreement.
"The deal always was, 'You look after us until we need you and we'll bail you out'," Mr Key said.
"He just doesn't fit the standards and principles that we have and we're not going with him."
Mr Key was equally damning of Labour's stance on crime despite statistics released yesterday showing police had resolved nearly 10,000 more offences over the past year than in the previous 12 months.
"Labour can try to dress it up any way they like but violent crime is up 11 per cent this year. It's up 47 per cent since they came into office."
