Leaders in position to hold talks

"Special votes remain an important part of the process for the Labour Party with more than 380,000 votes yet to be counted." Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern

Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern has called Winston Peters and they have agreed to ‘‘catch up’’ later in the week.

A spokesman for Ardern confirmed the call yesterday morning soon after the NZ First leader returned the call by National Party Bill English, which Peters had missed during the weekend.

‘‘This morning I spoke with NZ First Leader, Winston Peters.

‘‘We will look to hold a meeting between our respective teams later this week, while we wait for special votes to be counted,’’ Ardern said in a statement.

‘‘Special votes remain an important part of the process for the Labour Party with more than 380,000 votes yet to be counted,’’ she said.

‘‘In the meantime, we’ll continue to prepare ourselves for coalition negotiations.’’ .

Peters, who holds the kingmaker position, didn’t answer English’s first attempt at a direct conversation.

Peters said English left a voicemail suggesting the two talk this week and ‘‘as one would expect’’, he had already returned English’s call.

Preliminary talks would start this week when arrangements suitable to both parties were concluded, Peters said.

NZ First staff had been, and continued to be, in contact with staff from other political parties.

A Greens spokesperson said the party would not be commenting on negotiation discussions.

English told the AM Show yesterday he wanted to let Peters know that National was ready to start discussions when he was.

‘‘I just wanted to make sure that he knew that we were ready to talk at any time.’’

‘‘Mr Peters is just sticking to his plan,’’ English said.

This would have been the first direct leader-to-leader discussion since the election.

Peters said he didn’t decline English’s call on purpose.

By the time he saw he had missed the call, it was too late to ring back.

Last week, Peters made it abundantly clear he would not begin discussions until after the special votes were returned on Saturday, October 7.

Ardern has said she supports this timeline.

English told the AM Show he believed trying to form a new government between October 9 and 12 (the return of the writ), was a tight timeline.

English said forming a coalition had taken up to three weeks in the past, and that was with parties National was used to working with.

The pressure of trying to carry out those negotiations in four or five days would be ‘‘massive’’, he said, adding that NZ First also had Labour and the Green Party to talk to during that timeframe.

English also said he did not expect the special votes to make a significant difference.

The votes account for about 15 per cent of the total vote, and historically favour the Left.

Even if National lost a seat or two, it would still be ahead and in a strong position to form the next government, he said.

National - Green team?

The other topic of discussion yesterday was whether National would approach the Green Party to see whether the two could form the next government.

A coalition between the two would cut NZ First out of the mix.

English and Green Party leader James Shaw have both said if the other called they would have a responsibility to listen.

But Shaw said National would have to be offering an outstanding deal, especially around environmental policy, for the party to consider serious negotiations.

‘‘The Greens need to show there is a serious possibility of negotiation,’’ English said. ‘‘I think that’s yet to be seen.’’ Former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger said the Green Party has a responsibility to talk to National about forming the next government if it was serious about a clean, green New Zealand.