Christopher Luxon says he has a good relationship with Te Pāti Māori but has ruled out reversing plans to scrap the Māori Health Authority, even if it's the only way he can get into power.
It comes after a Newshub-Reid Research poll on Tuesday revealed Te Pāti Māori could be the kingmaker at the 2023 election.
The poll showed Labour's vote has plummeted 6.1 points, down to 38.2 percent - its first tumble into the 30s since Ardern became Prime Minister in 2017.
National has shot past Labour, cracking the 40 percent mark. It's now at 40.5 percent, up a whopping 9.2 points, reaching close to its pre-pandemic heights.
That means ACT's reality check has bedded in. It's at 6.4 percent, down 1.6.
The Greens are on the descent too, at 8.4 percent, down 1.2 points.
Bucking the minors' trend, the Māori Party is up a nudge, at 2.5 percent, up 0.5.
National would be the biggest party in Parliament on these figures, with 51 seats. Add on ACT's eight seats, and the centre-right would have 59 - not quite enough to wrest power. It's just two seats shy of the 61 needed.
Labour couldn't do it either. Its 48 seats plus the Greens' 10 come to 58. They would need three seats to get over the line.
If the Māori Party holds on to the Waiariki electorate, it would get the three remaining seats and decide who gets to captain the country.
The Māori Party has remained open to working with Luxon despite previously ruling out working with National in 2020.
Luxon told AM co-host Ryan Bridge on Tuesday he has a good relationship with the Māori Party and often talks with co-leader Rawiri Waititi.
"I talk a lot to Rawiri, we are quite friendly. We both came in in the class of 2020, but frankly, I am just fixated on making sure the National vote gets as large as it possibly can, that we get our messages out to as many communities across New Zealand and we still have a lot of work to do over the next 18 months."
When asked whether National was dead set on scrapping the Māori Health Authority, even if it meant the Māori Party wouldn't work with him, Luxon said yes.
"We are going to scrap the Māori Health Authority because we think it's better delivered through a Māori health directive through the Ministry of Health and we don't want two systems delivering our public health services."
But Luxon told Bridge he's focused on growing National, not which parties he might work with at the election.
"What I am focused on is just quarter by quarter making sure the National Party is really delivering for the New Zealand people and starting to focus on the things that really matter and that is of course the economy, which is really concerning everybody."
Earlier in the year, the Māori Party said it will only work with parties "focused on a treaty-centric Aotearoa".
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Te Pāti Māori co-leader, told AM at the time the party wasn't focused on whether it was "left or right", but being "Te Tiriti-centric". That means being "unapologetically Māori".
"We will only work with those who are focused on treaty-centric Aotearoa, a future-focused Aotearoa due to equality and equity," she said.
"We've always said that. It'll be our people that will determine that the day after the elections and we will always be true to that."
Ngarewa-Packer said there are some parties that "deny equity and deny equality".
"We can't be played off this. We have to be true to our values because there's so much going wrong that needs to go right for Tangata Whenua."
The Party has also ruled out working with ACT which would make a collection with National challenging.
