{"id":628645,"date":"2026-10-12T20:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628645\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T20:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:50:12","slug":"kingmakers-to-face-off-in-tvnzs-multi-party-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628645\/","title":{"rendered":"Kingmakers to face off in TVNZ&#8217;s Multi-Party Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The kingmakers get their turn tonight, as the five party leaders who could hand either National or Labour the keys to power face off in TVNZ\u2019s Multi-Party Debate.<\/p>\n<p>ACT leader David Seymour, Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Rawiri Waititi and Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong will take part.<\/p>\n<p>Breakfast presenter Tova O\u2019Brien will host the debate from 7pm on TVNZ 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/tvseries\/1-news-leaders-debate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TVNZ+<\/a> and 1News.co.nz.<\/p>\n<p>The debate will take place an hour after the latest 1News Verian poll is released at 6pm.<\/p>\n<p>Last week&#8217;s poll, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/06\/poll-opportunity-still-in-kingmaker-seat-as-greens-hold-strong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">released on October 6<\/a>, had National and Labour on 29% and 28% respectively, while the Greens remained in a strong position.<\/p>\n<p>Seymour and Peters lead parties in the current National-led coalition, while Swarbrick and Waititi head opposition parties. <\/p>\n<p>Support for Wong&#8217;s party is currently polling above the 5% threshold for getting in to Parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">TVNZ has extensive coverage of the election campaign. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n<p>The debate is the second of four TVNZ will screen before the election, and part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/09\/04\/tvnz-unveils-election-campaign-coverage-new-vodcast-tame-and-tova\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">1News&#8217; extensive campaign coverage<\/a>, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/04\/vote-compass-2026-compare-your-views-with-party-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">interactive Vote Compass<\/a> tool which launched this month.<\/p>\n<p>Last week&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.1news.co.nz\/2026\/10\/07\/leaders-debate-luxon-hipkins-fire-up-over-cost-of-living-trust-racism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TVNZ Leaders Debate<\/a> saw National leader Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins clash over trustworthiness, racism and the cost of living. A panel of undecided voters backed Hipkins over Luxon.<\/p>\n<p>Te Karere presenter Scotty Morrison and 1News M\u0101ori Affairs Correspondent Te Aniwa Hurihanganui will co-host the 1News: Kaupapa M\u0101ori Debate on October 29 at 7.30pm.<\/p>\n<p>TVNZ will use the November 5 slot \u2014 intended for a second Leaders Debate, but declined by Luxon \u2014 for the Q+A People&#8217;s Debate. It will put voters&#8217; questions to every party that qualifies under TVNZ&#8217;s debate criteria, including National and Labour. Jack Tame will moderate.<\/p>\n<p>All debates will screen on 1News.co.nz, TVNZ+, and TVNZ 1.<\/p>\n<p>Follow live updates of the debates on the 1News app and website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The kingmakers get their turn tonight, as the five party leaders who could hand either National or Labour&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28921,111794,23067,69543,111,137,43,139,69,271022,135,274547,57068,8027,270122,136],"class_list":["post-628645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-act-party","tag-chloe-swarbrick","tag-david-seymour","tag-green-party","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-first","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opportunity-party","tag-politics","tag-qiulae-wong","tag-rawiri-waititi","tag-te-pati-maori","tag-vote-2026","tag-winston-peters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}