The Latest Breaking News from Winston Peters

Centre-right party ousted Labour in election but outstanding votes will determine if National needs populist party NZ First to govern

The party of business is in power, but the creases are yet to be ironed out of its dress shirt

It is a complicated picture but our job is to keep you informed. We will stay across every twist and turn that is still to come so you will be across it too

Close, but so far no “baubles of office” for Winston Peters and NZ First. “We have done the impossible,” he told supporters on election night. But as the old saying goes, politics is the art of the possible.

Prime Minister-elect Chris Luxon started his day watching the All Blacks' World Cup win before turning his mind to forming the next New Zealand government.

National will lead a new government, but it may be nigh Christmas before its precise shape become clear. Jonathan Milne reports on the promises made, and compromises still to be made...

When the critics and the media commentary mounted and the public opinion polls showed ebbing support, National's strategists doubled down, convinced the demand for change would prevail.

Christopher Luxon headed to bed in the early hours of Sunday morning a Prime Minister with a National-Act majority, having ransacked Labour in safe red seats.

From winning a single-party majority in 2020, Labour’s vote has virtually halved in 2023. Pre-election polls appear to have under-estimated support for National, which on the provisional results can form a government with ACT and won’t need NZ First, despite those same polls pointing to a three-way split.

The big question is can National and Act speedily negotiate government formation without the spectre of a confidence without supply arrangement

Chris Luxon will become New Zealand's next prime minister as his centre-right National party wins the country's election.