Winston Peters says he's "out to defy gravity" after the latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll showed his party wouldn't make it back to Parliament in the upcoming election.
New Zealand First was down 0.9 percent to 2.7 percent - far away from the 5 percent threshold needed to return to power.
Speaking to Peter Williams on Magic Mornings, Peters pointed out NZ First has a history of outperforming poor polling results to make it back to Parliament.
"In a long career, unlike every other politician I don't give a rats about your polls because they're confetti," he says.
"When we get in the campaign we turn them into confetti over and over and over again but I still have to put up with the Tova O'Briens on TV3 and others making prize idiots of themselves.
"But they'll be there at election night trying to get through the hall of New Zealand First saying 'can we talk to you'."
Peters wasn't the only leader to get grim news in the Newshub-Reid Research Poll.
National dropped down a staggering 12.7 points to 30.6 percent - which would cull at least 16 National MPs. And the share of Kiwis who would prefer Simon Bridges as Prime Minster fell to just 4.5 percent.
Speaking in the aftermath of the poll, Bridges told Newshub he doesn't see himself going anywhere and will "absolutely" be National leader come the September 19 election.
"We don't talk about our internal polls but we are where we are right now - polls jump around."
And Peters, too, was defiant - promising to campaign despite the odds.
"We have been around all these years, the longest-serving politician of all these years and the longest new political party for 27 years in the modern times," he tells Williams.
"We're out to defy gravity here. One more time."
