Winston Peters has fired a shot at the Greens' relevance to coalition negotiations, suggesting the party plays a minor role in any final decisions.
The New Zealand First leader said regular reports of a "Labour-Green government" over the past three years were wrong.
Leaving this afternoon's meeting with Labour, Peters said the meeting went "very well", with both sides working through the assigned material faster than expected.
Asked about James Shaw's comment earlier today that he trusts Jacinda Ardern to strike a fair deal with the Greens, while negotiating a separate deal with NZ First, Peters said he couldn't speak for Shaw.
"Contrary to what you people say, I've never had a bad word with him or about him, that you could possibly quote. Because I've never said something bad about him in my career.
"So could you just leave it at the fact that I'm talking about New Zealand First and what we are doing, rather than any other party."
Discussions were still all about policy, Peters said.
"It will be policy all the way up to tomorrow night."
Peters was unimpressed when asked his verdict on some home baking apparently taken by Ardern into the meeting.
"This is a rather serious issue, alright? It is about the next Government of this country and you ask me about a cake? Why have do you always have to drag things down to a pit like that."
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