Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken a subtle jab at Winston Peters after he launched a scathing attack on Labour.
At the New Zealand First conference in Christchurch on the weekend, Peters lashed out saying co-governance with Māori is akin to the brutal South African apartheid regime.
He went on to claim the English language was being erased and promised to ban gang patches if his party gets back into Parliament.
His party also voted on a policy to remove almost all references to the Treaty of Waitangi from New Zealand's laws.
But Peters wasn't done, he went on the criticise Three Waters and call the Māori Health Authority "r***rded theft" not reform.
But despite copping widespread criticism, Ardern was keeping her thoughts on Peters to herself on Monday.
Speaking with AM's Melissa Chan-Green the Prime Minister brushed off Peters' attack, saying it sounded like his "attempt to get a headline".
"I am not particularly interested in helping them out with that," she added. "I looked at it and thought, it must be coming up to an election, that's what I thought.
"There's a particular cycle that we see and you know if you've got a politician who has been around long enough you see it and we see that now with Winston Peters. An election comes around and particular language and positioning get used."
Ardern went on to say her Government worked successfully with New Zealand First in the past and achieved some good things.
"All I will say is, I worked with New Zealand First for three years and we demonstrated we can create a strong and stable government under a range of different circumstances.
"I am not going to rewrite history, we actually did do some good things when we worked together in government. Now we see some political positioning before an election and I think that probably sums it up."
When asked whether she would rule out working with the party again in the future, Ardern said clearly Peters isn't particularly keen.
"All I am demonstrating is our ability to work with whoever New Zealanders deliver but I think we are a long way away from saying they are going to create a scenario where New Zealand First is in the frame.
"I think they are demonstrating they're not that keen to work with us," she added when pushed on whether she would rule out working with the party.
Labour formed a coalition Government with New Zealand First in 2017 with a confidence and supply agreement from the Green Party.
The parties worked together until the 2020 general election when Labour won a landslide victory and New Zealand First was bumped out of Parliament.
