Jacinda Ardern hits back at David Seymour's 'the whole country has been let down' swipe over coalition talks

October 17, 2017

The Labour leader criticises the Act leader's take on the coalition negotiations.

Jacinda Ardern has hit back at Act leader David Seymour after he criticised both her and National leader Bill English over the coalition negotiations with Winston Peters.

When asked on Breakfast today if she thought the Act leader was right in saying both Labour and National should have shown more leadership and ensured NZ First's negotiations were public, Ms Ardern said "no, I do not".

"David Seymour would never conduct, for instance, a commercial negotiation in public and so why would you conduct a negotiation of this scale and nature in public?" the Labour leader said.

"Transparency, I agree, is important. The moment an agreement is signed and is a done deal, those agreement are publicly released."

"I think people would understand why that would be the case."

Yesterday, Mr Seymour said he was "ultimately interested in the policy and the way Jacinda and Bill have let themselves be dictated to by 'Mr seven per cent' and his imaginary friends, [it] means the whole country has been really let down".

Seymour says 'Winston is off talking to his imaginary friends' and that nothing has been made public about policy.

NZ First holds the balance of power and can either grant National a fourth term, by joining it and forming a government, or it can make Jacinda Ardern prime minister in a Labour-led government.

The NZ FirstMPs and the board have in front of them two option papers setting out the deals offered by the main parties, and will be meeting again this morning after meeting for most of yesterday.

Ms Ardern said she did not know when a decision would be made, or when a completed proposal would be given to her.

However, she said both Labour and National had been treated equally, and she was pleased the negotiations were focused around policy.

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