Both the Greens and NZ First are hanging on by a thread this election and polling has Labour taking over Parliament and governing on its own, so is it time to rethink MMP?
If Labour leader Jacinda Ardern ever needed an ego boost, a quick walk around the block would do the trick, as she experienced on Thursday in Taupo with locals telling her "we love you" and "thank you so much for keeping us safe".
If adoration translates to votes - and based on the polls it does - Labour's a shoo-in.
When asked how tantalising the prospect of governing alone is, Ardern said: "Be under no doubt we will campaign hard and we will campaign hard for a strong mandate for Labour."
So, on the one hand that's a 'yes' that Ardern wants Labour in Government and Labour alone. But on the other hand, that means Labour's buddies this term - NZ First and the Greens - are in the proverbial.
"My view is that New Zealand is well-served by having the range of smaller parties that we do in Parliament," Ardern said, when asked if it would be lamentable if NZ First and the Greens didn't make it back into Parliament next term.
Even if killing off Winston Peters politically isn't the goal, on current polling he's stuffed. Labour's pollsters have him on 3.9 percent, and they usually always have him above 5 percent.
"That's a Labour Party poll and here you are reciting it, I mean grow up, be more professional and realise this is about all of New Zealand, not just the old two party narrative," Peters said on Thursday.
The Greens are also under 5 percent on the same poll, on the brink of political oblivion after the Green School funding debacle. But the Greens are still trying to call the shots, still trying to freeze NZ First out of any future Labour-led Government.
"When you look at the track record they have had over the last three years, they have been extremely difficult and quite chaotic and not, I would argue, a force for moderation inside the Government," Shaw told Newshub.
In 2012 the Electoral Commission reviewed MMP and recommended we lower the threshold to get into Parliament to 4 percent and axe the coat-tailing rule.
That's been the lifeline for ACT and could mean leader David Seymour brings in more MPs than NZ First or the Greens with less of the vote, if he wins Epsom.
"There is no logic to the position of abolishing coat-tails. If you win an electorate seat then you've passed the test to be in Parliament. Why shouldn't you get proportional representation as well?" Seymour told Newshub.
Shaw said he doesn't think MMP works as well as it should.
National Party leader Judith Collins didn't vote for MMP in the referendum in 1993 and still doesn't like it.
"Well, I don't think it actually serves New Zealand very well at all. I think what you'll see is some of those minor parties might disappear and I'm not sure if that is a bad thing," Collins said.
Peters does not want our MMP system tweaked at all, and is dead certain NZ First will be back and that Labour will not govern alone.
"It ain't going to happen," he said.
Ardern said, "It is a rare thing for New Zealand so we make no assumption that will be delivered by any stretch."
On Friday it's show time with the leaders of all five political parties in the same room pitching their policies head-to-head, and the way this election is going it could be one of the last times they're all together.
The protective gear and hard hats worn on the campaign trail will be ditched for the leaders' addresses at Business NZ, but perhaps they shouldn't be... just in case.
