Voters turned off by the scrapping between the Maori and Mana parties will help Labour in the Maori electorates, leader Phil Goff says.
The Mana Party, during the weekend, said it would contest all seven Maori seats in November's general election, along with as many general electorates as possible.
The party was formed after Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira left the Maori Party and resigned from Parliament, forcing a by-election that he won under his new party's banner in June.
Mr Goff today said the Mana Party was not on the radar.
"Mana and Maori will continue to scrap amongst themselves, we'll continue to talk about the issues that are important to the people in the Maori electorate. That should help Labour," he said.
Mr Goff said people were "turned off" by the fighting.
The issues important to Maori included the cost of living, jobs, skills training and asset sales, he said.
Labour had not done any internal polling, but Mr Goff said the "real polling" was at the by-election, in which there was a "massive swing" from Mr Harawira to Labour candidate Kelvin Davis.
The Mana Party held its first annual conference during the weekend, at which more than 150 people confirmed Mr Harawira's leadership, while activist John Minto and lawyer Annette Sykes were appointed joint vice-presidents.
The party outlined draft key policies of abolishing GST, compulsory te reo in schools and establishing an independent Treaty of Waitangi commissioner to oversee historic claims.
