A buoyant Christopher Luxon continues to urge Kiwis to throw their support behind one party - National.
As of last week, per the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, National was on track to get 39.1 percent of the vote - ahead of Labour's 26.5 percent. National would, however, require the support of ACT (8.8 pct) and New Zealand First (5.2 pct) based on the poll.
Luxon has made it clear his preference was for National to collect the largest share of the vote possible, therefore being able to bypass NZ First and form a two-party coalition with ACT.
And Luxon had a message for voters during his weekly interview with AM on Wednesday.
"I think New Zealanders understand they need change and they've actually got to step up to the plate and actually vote for change, and that means party vote National," he said.
"The message is really simple: if you want [a] change, if you think the country's heading in the wrong direction - you may be an undecided voter, you may never have voted for National before - but actually, National's going to govern for all New Zealanders and that's what we want people to do."
That promise echoed the one made by former Prime Jacinda Ardern during her 2020 election victory speech, during which she promised Labour would be a party that governed "for every New Zealander".
Luxon was due to go head-to-head with Ardern's successor Chris Hipkins in The Press leaders' debate on Tuesday, which the latter was unable to attend due to a bout of COVID-19.
However, Labour accused Luxon of pulling out of the debate and being unwilling to compromise or reschedule - sparking a war of words between the two parties.
But Luxon continued to insist rescheduling wasn't possible.
He said his schedule was "pretty locked down" until voting day.
"There are a lot of places for us to visit, I know I'm bouncing all over the country between now and the election in 10 days' time."
Luxon went on to say himself had Hipkins had "a great debate opportunity happening next week" - the third and final televised leaders' debate.
"It's the last of the debates, that'll be viewed by lots of people and I'm really looking forward to that."
The minor parties have since agreed to partake in The Press debate in Luxon and Hipkins' place.