The team discuss who's making nice with whom, the return of Shane Jones, a Greens apology, Todd Barclay implications and Māori Party-Labour fisticuffs.

Watch the video version of the episode here

Why is New Zealand First assumed to be the king maker? Is everyone a bit over-excited about the second coming of Shane Jones? And can the party mobilise the regions to push their vote ahead of the Greens?

On the weekend, Jones made soothing noises towards the Greens, at odds with what NZ First leader Winston Peters typically says about them. Is that significant? The Greens have said publicly they can work with New Zealand First - and it's expected they will say more at their election year conference this coming weekend - but could Winston do a deal that involves them?

Shane Jones announcing he is standing for New Zealand First in Whangarei.

This week on Morning Report, Labour Party leader Andrew Little reached out to Jones, calling him "a friend of Labour". But there are questions as to whether Jones' any more friendly with Labour that he would be with National.

Then there's Green Party co-leader James Shaw's apology for his party's immigration policy. Last year he floated the idea of keeping it at about 1 percent of the overall population as a way to manage it without the peaks and troughs, but met with resistance from immigrant advocates. He said last weekend he was "mortified" by the reaction and walked back that policy. But is that apology a sign of strength or does it further muddy the waters?

How has Prime Minister Bill English rallied from the Todd Barclay debacle and what's the opening opposition parties see in how he handled that? And then there's the roiling spat between Labour and the Māori Party. This week the Māori Party announced a partnership with One Pacific and president Tukoroirangi Morgan said Māori were sick of being "oppressed" by people like Andrew Little. Could those parties ever work together?

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We talk about Barry Coates being "nuanced when he should have been unequivocal" on coalition agreements, as well as the battle over National and Labour's families packages.

By Tim Watkin

In today's episode, Green MP Barry Coates' ill-considered suggestion that the Greens might prefer a second election to a Labour-New Zealand First coalition, which could keep his party on the sidelines, pushed coalition politics to the top of the hosts' agenda.

Coates is the Greens' newest MP, having entered Parliament on the list in October last year when Kevin Hague resigned. He told Newshub this week that Labour and New Zealand First could not take Green Party support for granted if they tried to keep them out of any coalition talks.

Picking up on comments by Greens co-leader Metiria Turei at the weekend, he said a Labour-New Zealand First government would be unacceptable to the Greens, then went even further, suggesting that if numbers allowed, they could force another election.

Greens co-leader James Shaw promptly shot down Coates' comments, telling Morning Report Coates was wrong and he was "essentially being nuanced when he should have been unequivocal and I have spoken to him about it".

So, after Turei's accusations that New Zealand First practised "racist and divisive" politics, what are the Greens up to?

Meanwhile, with the release of Labour's families package this week, we now have the big two parties fighting for the family vote. The promise of a baby bonus and winter fuel payments stood out, but the package also faced accusations of being over-complex.

So who has the edge? What do voters get from each? And what do their positions reveal about the parties' wider strategies?

Finally, National allocated its $1 billion infrastructure fund this week. Did it all go to plan? That's this week's Caucus.

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Labour's fiscals, Winston's growing spending tab, who wants the Māori seats, what a Green Party voter looks like and whether it's OK for Metiria Turei to have deceived WINZ (oh, and the Greens' actual family policy!).

By Tim Watkin

Labour and National are doubling down on the budgetary hands they have dealt themselves after the release of Labour's fiscal plan this week. The gap between the two isn't huge - both are promising to spend some of the surplus on families while committing to debt levels that are low by international standards. But you wouldn't know it from the rhetoric.

If you listened to Labour, you would believe the heartless National government is letting social services rot. Its fiscals this week promised $8 billion more in health, $4 billion more in education and $5 billion more in its family package, over four years. By "more", they mean on top of National's promised spending in Budget 2017. Its rationale? That services have been ground down and need to be refreshed.

National says that will mean more borrowing and it's typical of Labour 'tax and spend'.

It reckons people would rather have some of that money in their own pocket, some (but significantly less) spent on those services, and more fiscal discipline, where money is not spent at all.

National warns of a rainy day and wants Crown debt down below 20 percent of GDP. Labour's happy to let it stay a couple of percent higher. In fours years National wants debt at 18 percent of GDP and falling, while Labour wants it at 20 percent. The difference is around $7 billion in borrowing.

But for context, either of those debt levels is conservative by international standards. Australia's government debt is almost double that; Britain, America and Canada's are 3-4 times those numbers. So there's not much between the two parties.New Zealand First, on the other hand, has a growing shopping list of policies, including a referendum on the Māori seats. But we don't know what they think they'll cost and in the case of the referendum, the party even had some wobbles over whether all its MPs are on board with what Winston wants. Is it time to take New Zealand First more seriously?

At the same time, the Greens have this week stepped out on their own with a family package that outbids even Labour. The Greens want to increase main benefits by 20 percent, increase the minimum wage significantly and cut sanctions on beneficiaries.

On top of that, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei confessed that as a solo mum and student in the 1990s, she had deceived WINZ over her living arrangements so that she got a higher benefit. So why did she do that and what impact might it have on voters' choices?…

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