Winston Peters and David Seymour have been quick to slam Chris Hipkins after he ruled out working with them as coalition partners following the 2023 general election.
Labour leader Hipkins lashed out at what he called the alienating policies of potential National coalition partners New Zealand First and ACT.
"In fact, the National, ACT, New Zealand First coalition of cuts, chaos and confusion hold a compilation of views I think would alienate large sections of our society. Not just economically, but to their sense of belonging too," Hipkins said when announcing who Labour would and wouldn't work with after the election.
Shortly after Hipkins' speech, Peters hit back at the Labour leader's comments saying they were old and not breaking news.
"It seems that Mr Hipkins is in some sort of time warp. He has taken over a year and a half to finally read my speeches back to me - via a press conference with the media," Peters said at a meeting in New Plymouth.
"He's announcing something that everybody already knows, which is that New Zealand First has already ruled out going into any form of government with Labour - because of their racist separatist policies."
Last year, Peters ruled out working with Labour unless it dropped what he referred to as "racist policies".
Peters described Hipkins' "faux announcement" as being a reaction to poor poll results, which are "nose-diving".
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll released earlier this month showed Labour was in a downward spiral and National and ACT had the numbers to comfortably form a Government.
"One of the reasons is not only because of their abysmal incompetent performance on their own since 2020, but because they have abandoned the workers of New Zealand, they have preferred pandering to the woke, and they have pursued policies of preference based on race," Peters said.
Meanwhile, ACT leader Seymour was also quick to launch a scathing attack on Hipkins and his speech, saying he's launched a "campaign of fear".
Seymour said Hipkins and Labour have "no record of achievement" to run on so are resorting to fear-mongering.
"But New Zealanders deserve better," Seymour said in a statement.
The ACT leader said the "campaign of fear" won't work and New Zealanders know they face "real problems".
"They are not looking for someone to fight, argue and try to keep things the same," he said.
Seymour described Labour as a "disaster" for New Zealand with "out of control" inflation, a culture of lawlessness and division based on race.
He also hit out at Hipkins for "mischaracterising" ACT and called on the Labour leader to allow "honest, healthy" debate at October's election.
"In response to questions about Labour's low polling recently, Hipkins said 'we're going to fight back' and we've now seen what he means - fear-mongering, attacking and mischaracterising ACT," Seymour said.
"New Zealanders have the right to an honest, healthy debate this election. Hipkins should publicly commit to doing that. He won't because he has no other option."
Seymour said ACT's election approach is the "opposite" of Labour's which is sending Kiwis across the ditch to Australia due to the challenges of inflation, lawlessness, and division.
