New Conservative leader Leighton Baker says there are several ways they and the rising ACT Party could work together after this year's election "for the benefit of New Zealand".
On Sunday, Newshub-Reid Research poll results showed the New Conservatives at 2.1 percent - overtaking current Government partner NZ First. ACT was at 6.3 percent and, so far, has only all but ruled out working with Labour.
"They have a skills shortage. The fact that Chris Hipkins has to be the Minister of Health and Education shows they do not have the skills to plot a path," ACT leader David Seymour said of Labour.
On Monday, Magic Talk host Peter Williams asked Baker if the New Conservatives and ACT joining forces was and working together was a possibility.
"There's a lot of ways ACT and us would work together for the benefit of New Zealand," Baker said.
"I know ACT wants to see farmers enhanced as well. So, yeah, there are definitely areas we'd work together, there are definitely areas where we have separate ideas."
Like ACT, the New Conservatives were against gun law reforms and the Zero Carbon Bill.
"There's got to be a way for those firearms to come back within a legal cordon, so this is about safety but it's also about respect and dignity for a group of New Zealanders who are just as horrified by what happened [on March 15] by anyone else - probably more so - and feel like they've been scapegoated for it," Seymour told The AM Show on Monday.
But the two parties stand on opposite sides when it comes to euthanasia, cannabis, and abortion - ACT in favour and the New Conservative against.
"ACT and New Conservative are probably both fiscally conservative," Baker said. "We want our tax money spent wisely.
"The big difference between us is we're socially conservative and they're socially liberal."
While New Conservative is still tracking well below the 5 percent threshold to enter Parliament, Baker said his party was starting to grow "really well".
"COVID's sucked all the oxygen out of the election and people are just starting to look outside of that at 'what does the future actually hold for New Zealand?'
"I know I believe we're going to go a lot further than what we are now."
The New Conservative Party is a rebrand of Colin Craig's Conservatives, which was bundled in 2014 after details of inappropriate behaviour by Craig emerged. The Conservatives managed 4 percent of the party vote that year.
