No referendum on Maori seats: Ardern

The Labour leader says she hasn't even contacted Winston Peters yet but has already ruled out one of his bottom lines – a referendum on the Maori seats.

“Our strong view was it was always going to be up to Maori to see what will be the future of the Maori seats – rather than a binding referendum,” Jacinda Ardern told a media scrum today.

She called the Maori seats "non-negotiable."

But Ms Ardern also said Labour would be prepared to begin negations with New Zealand First before the special votes are counted.   

Ms Ardern was giving little else away in terms of what was and wasn’t on the line in any coalition talks with Mr Peters's NZ First negotiators.

“I’m not going to be answering any specific questions over individual items that may be part of negotiations between the parties that are potentially in a position to form a government,” she said when asked about Mr Peters' aversion to Labour’s water tax.

The Labour leader says she’s keen to move as “quickly and reasonably” as she can with the negotiations with any coalition partners and that formal talks will begin soon.

“My expectation is to reach out over the next couple of days but I haven’t done so yet.”

In terms of Labour’s negotiation team, Ms Ardern says it will be “tight” but won’t be drawn on who will be involved.

She says she will be putting together Labour’s front bench tomorrow but it’s likely to be very similar to Labour’s front bench before the election.

Although most of the votes have been counted, special votes need to be tallied up.

It is expected the Labour or the Greens will get at least one extra MP as a result of the specials.

Asked if Labour could start negotiations with NZ First before the special votes have all come in, Ms Ardern says that could be the case for Labour.

“But I don’t expect you would see any firm conclusions until we know the final make-up of Parliament.”

When it comes to negotiating with NZ First, Ms Ardern says the two parties “certainly have common ground” on a few issues and areas where the two parties would have “useful discussions.”

She says from her perspective, Labour and NZ First have more overlap than National and NZ First.

But she did rule out a referendum on the Maori seats.

“Our strong view was it was always going to be up to Maori to see what will be the future of the Maori seats – rather than a binding referendum.”

But when it comes to moving Auckland’s port, Ms Ardern says she sides with Mr Peters' calls to move it.

“I’m on record saying we take a view that we do have to make sure the future of the port for Auckland is sustainable. We don’t see expansion at its existing site as being sustainable – that does mean we do need to look at new locations.”