Winston Peters confirms NZ will know government tomorrow, but how it will play out is anyone's guess says 1 NEWS' Corin Dann

October 18, 2017

1 NEWS' Corin Dann says Mr Peters has spoken with both National and Labour and told them he'll go public tomorrow.

Winston Peters has announced he will reveal his party's choice for who they will support for the next New Zealand government tomorrow afternoon, but there are still many questions to be answered between now and then, with both major parties likely still in the dark, 1 NEWS political editor Corin Dann says.

The NZ First leader says they are "98 per cent there" on the policy issues.

Speaking at Bowen House in Wellington tonight, Dann said how the New Zealand First leader would correspond with National, Labour and the Greens tomorrow was totally up in the air.

"I think you'll see they'll be more talks in the morning but it's very unclear, and of course Winston Peters has already set a couple of deadlines in this process so perhaps we just need to take this with some caution," Dann said.

"What's also clear from today though was this wasn't just a caucus meeting of the New Zealand First MPs. They were continuing negotiations with both Labour and National and we know last night there were face-to-face meetings with the leaders."

The National leader exited a coalition chat with Mr Peters tonight, involving just the two of them, in Wellington.

Dann said these late-night meetings were likely continuing to dissect ministerial deals, and "critically", the formation of this government and whether it will be a coalition or a supply and confidence arrangement.  

Dann said however it was "very, very unclear" how tomorrow would play out, saying he expects at some point tomorrow afternoon there would be a media conference of some description. 

Mr Peters avoided media after talks with his caucus this afternoon, instead choosing to release the information through a statement which read:

"New Zealand First have said they will be in a position tomorrow afternoon to make an announcement on the result of negotiations following the 2017 General Election.

"New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters said he had spoken to the leaders of the National Party and the Labour Party today and, amongst other matters, advised them of that."

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