National’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis said she does not want to be in Government with NZ First, although she would if she has to.

At the Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom debate in Auckland, Willis was asked whether another Provincial Growth Fund would be on the table in negotiations with NZ First to form a government.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Willis said.

“This is a really serious answer, and I think the people in this room need to hear it: I don’t want to go into Government with NZ First,” Willis said.

The content of her remarks is the same as that of her leader, Christopher Luxon, who earlier this week said he would work with NZ First if required, but preferred a National-Act coalition.

Willis’ framing of the answer, however, explicitly saying she did not want that kind of a government, was very strong.

National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis and Grant Robertson, Labour's finance spokesperson at Mood of the Boardroom in Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

“My strong preference is a National-Act coalition. The only way that doesn’t happen right now is if a bunch of people decide instead of giving their party vote to National they’re going to do something different,” she said.

However, the odds of that are not looking good. The Herald’s poll of polls reckons National and Act have just a 39 per cent chance of getting over the line without NZ First’s help.

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Labour’s finance spokesman Grant Robertson jumped in saying, “there’s a really simple way of making sure Winston Peters doesn’t control the next government, you party vote Labour because he ain’t working with us and we ain’t working with him”.

Peters brushed off the comments when it was put to him.

“She’s allowed to say what she wants to say, we live in a democracy,” Peters said.

The debate took place against the backdrop of a very gloomy mood of the boardroom survey. The Labour government never really “won” the boardroom, just as National never really wins the trades hall, but the results were nevertheless sobering.

Labour’s Chris Hipkins scored just 1.93 out of 5 for its economic management, lower than 3.99 scored by Luxon. Overall, Hipkins scored 2.95 and Luxon scored 3.49.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, Photo / Dan Hutchinson

Business NZ deputy CEO Phil Love laid down the wero to both leaders, warning that things like crime were beginning to blight the business environment.

“In the last few years, we seem to have lost a bit of ambition. It may not be so relevant to this high-performing audience, but it’s missing in some of our communities, in some of our families, in some of our schools, education, and health, and we get a gentle reminder every day with crime where some people think that robbing a liquor store or a Michael Hill Jeweller is a way of life,” he said.

“With more ambition, we can return to the rockstar economy that we were dubbed more than 10 years ago, if you recall that was a growing and thriving economy,” he said, referencing the comments of HSBC chief economist for Australia and New Zealand Paul Bloxham who in 2014 dubbed New Zealand the “rockstar economy”.

Robertson did his best to tout his own record, noting unemployment was low at 3.6 per cent - it hovered around 5.5 per cent in the “rockstar economy” year.

There were moments of levity. Willis joked that one person in the survey described Willis as “a school mum” but also “Whitney Houston-like”.

“I’m not quite sure this morning whether I should burst into lecture or song,” Willis said.

Robertson riffed on this joke later on, when asked whether there were any regrets that he had.

“If people are accusing Nicola of being Whitney Houston, I’m certainly not Cher, and I can’t turn back time,” he said, referencing the popular song.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.