We may still be waiting for a new government, but the formal end of the election process has been completed with the return of the writ.

Issued by the governor-general in September, the writ directed the Electoral Commission to conduct a general election.

“The writ has been returned to the clerk of the house of representatives today showing the names of the successful electorate candidates,” said Karl Le Quesne, the chief electoral officer.

There remains no timetable for the completion of government negotiations between National, Act and New Zealand First though party leaders have said talks were now in the final stages. 

While the writ marks the end of the formal election process, there is also the Port Waikato byelection on November 25.

The filmmaker behind Titanic and Avatar has expressed his love for New Zealand and said he plans to become a citizen.

Motocross jersey fanatic James Cameron, who is working on the countless three remaining Avatar sequels in Wellington, was speaking at the country’s annual Screen Industry conference.

“I’m sort of speaking on behalf of a big international production, but I’m a resident here, I’ll be a citizen in a year and I plan on making all my films here in Wellington,” he said, as reported by the Herald. “I love working here. I love the people that I get to work with here.”

We’re still about two years away from the next Avatar film, after the second in the series, The Way of Water, was released in 2022. That film, Cameron had said several years back, would make you “shit yourself with your mouth wide open.”

National’s leader has signalled coalition talks could be nearing completion, but still isn’t prepared to put a timeline on when exactly we’ll have a new government.

Negotiations have today moved down the road from Auckland’s Pullman Hotel to the Cordis where it’s expected Christopher Luxon will again meet with Act’s David Seymour and New Zealand First’s Winston Peters.

According to Stuff, Luxon is first dissecting counter-offers put forward yesterday by Act and New Zealand First with his top team, which includes Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop (who arrived at the hotel on a Lime scooter).

“We had a very productive day yesterday, it started with the three leaders coming together, Winston Peters and myself and our chiefs of staff met then for most of the morning, David Seymour and I had lunch yesterday talking about a few issues, and then we met with the full ACT team yesterday afternoon – and then Winston Peters and our chiefs, we carried on again at 6pm,” Luxon told reporters outside the Cordis Hotel.

“We’re going through all the detail of our respective manifestos – we are making great progress, we’re in the final stages.”

Nicola Willis also said talks were into the final stages and told reporters the detail of the written agreements was being analysed by each party. “We are literally going through clause by clause, sentence by sentence, [checking] is everyone happy.”

Stats NZ released international migration statistics yesterday. The 237,100 migrant arrivals are the highest on record for an annual period. People are leaving New Zealand in record high numbers (118,200) too, likely heading off on OEs after the pandemic restrained travel plans. Overall, though, the net migration gain of 118,800 people in the September 2023 year is also a record high.

Migration-driven population growth has more than doubled compared to pre-Covid levels. interest.co.nz’s Dan Brunskill has a good report this morning on the now-familiar $100b infrastructure deficit, housing and our increasing population.

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Act’s David Seymour said just because it’s taking a while to form a new government doesn’t mean a deal won’t be reached.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB, Seymour said going back to the polls again would be a “nuclear option” and he was confident a coalition agreement could be reached in the coming days. “There’s a difference between being slow and being impossible,” Seymour said.

”We’re not quite at a 5 metre scrum mark but we’re well within the 22,” said Seymour, who believed the three parties had “narrowed” what disagreement remained.

Yesterday saw the first face-to-face between between Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and Seymour (if you haven’t already, read Toby Manhire’s close analysis of that picture). It seems likely the trio will meet again today, though whether in Auckland or Wellington remains unknown.

Talks between the parties carried on into last night, though independent of one another. As the Herald reported, Peters returned to the Pullman Hotel later in the day and was seen emerging again at 8pm. He did not speak to reporters.

Seymour, while acknowledging that “everybody” wanted a quicker deal, said this morning that it was more important to have a government that could go the distance. If the government started to fall apart after two years, nobody would be happy a deal had been reached two days quicker, he said.

“No one of the three has the power to compel the other two to do it in a particular timeframe,” said Seymour, when asked if a deal was a few days away. But he remained confident it could be: “People have been waiting a long time… the rest can be done in that timeframe.”