National leader Judith Collins is not ruling out ACT leader David Seymour as her Deputy Prime Minister if the two parties form a coalition after the election.
Collins also laughed off Green Party co-leader James Shaw suggesting he could be Deputy Prime Minister in a Government under Jacinda Ardern if Labour and the Greens form a coalition.
But Collins has ruled out implementing ACT's flat tax rate of 17.5 percent on income if they were to form a Government together.
"No we're not going to be doing that and I'll tell you that straight out. It is really important that we can balance the books, it's also important that we grow our economy, but apart from that I'm not going to rule out or rule in," Collins said.
"The fact is the National Party will be - should we be fortunate to lead the next Government - the major party in Government and we would expect that negotiations would occur at the negotiating table."
But Collins is leaving the door open for ACT's leader to potentially become Deputy Prime Minister if the election goes in the right's favour.
"Those are negotiations that are still to be had. I'm not ruling it out. It's a negotiation still to be had. I'm not in that lucky position yet to do that."
National is currently bleeding votes to ACT. Analysis from the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll showed 37 percent of ACT's voters this year have come over from National.
ACT is on 6.3 percent in Newshub's poll up 3 points, while National is on 29.6 percent up 4.5 points. National and ACT would not have enough of the vote to form a Government on those numbers.
ACT is now fighting with the Greens to become Parliament's third-largest party. The Greens are on 6.5 percent in Newshub's poll, but its ally Labour is on 50.1 percent meaning it could govern alone on those numbers.
But that hasn't stopped Shaw from dreaming of a Labour-Greens Government, after the latest Colmar Brunton poll showed Labour on 47 percent, meaning it would need the Greens.
Shaw was pressed on the idea of him becoming Deputy Prime Minister in a Labour-Green Government when speaking to RNZ's Morning Report on Tuesday.
"That role, like all of the other ministerial positions, is something that we'll discuss after the election," he said.
"It depends on the numbers, it depends on the shape of the agreement that we've got, it depends on the extent to which we think it can help us to advance the programme of work that we have. It's not out of the realm of possibility."
The current Deputy Prime Minister is Winston Peters, the leader of New Zealand First, which has a formal coalition agreement with Labour, while the Greens have a less powerful confidence and supply agreement.
But NZ First is polling at 1 percent in Newshub's latest poll, meaning it would not meet the 5 percent threshold to make it back into Parliament.
Collins said in September the prospect of a Labour-Greens Government should "scare the bejesus" out of New Zealanders.
She laughed off Shaw's suggestion that he could soon replace Peters in Government and insisted the prospect of a National-ACT Government would not scare people.
"No, I don't think so at all."
Collins made fun of Shaw having to backtrack last week after Green MP Julie Anne Genter said the Greens' wealth tax policy was a "bottom line" condition that must be met for her party to form a coalition with Labour.
Shaw later told Morning Report that Genter misspoke under pressure, and confirmed that a wealth tax is not one of the party's bottom lines.
"I think that if you look at the fact that James Shaw has this morning been on Morning Report saying that being Deputy Prime Minister would be one of their negotiating positions and presumably a bottom line, along with whatever it was Julie Anne Genter said the other day about a bottom line which James Shaw was quickly trying to wind back - what was that one about? Oh, a wealth tax. So, yeah, I think it's a pretty scary outlook for people," Collins said.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern would not say if she would support Shaw becoming Deputy Prime Minister under a Government led by her.
"These are just not negotiations that I would ever enter into before we've even had Election Day; that would be extraordinarily premature. I'm much more focused on campaigning to earn the right to govern."
Labour's deputy leader is Kelvin Davis, and Ardern said he'd be up to the job.
