National Party MPs are backing their leader over his apology to businesses, but won't say whether Winston Peters should be sacked for comments aimed at a Chinese-born MP.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has apologised on Monday for comments deemed "out of touch" by some, after he told an audience at a Rotorua Business Chamber event last week that some businesses had a "parent-child mentality" and too often looked to the government for help.

He also said he had spoken with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters about telling the Greens' Lawrence Xu-nan to go back to his own country - comments Luxon called "racist" - but refused to outline what exactly was discussed.

Answering questions outside of Parliament on Tuesday morning, Rangitīkei MP Suze Redmayne said the Christopher Luxon was out with business owners most weeks.

"Just by his actions, he supports small businesses 100 percent."

"He's out and about visiting businesses every week, including a couple of weeks ago [when] I took them to Mitchpine in Levin, where they were effusive in their praise." she said.

Asked whether she was comfortable with Peters serving in a Cabinet propped up by her party's votes, Redmayne said "it's not my Cabinet".

Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink said Peter's comments were racist and some of her constituents were "upset" by them but would not say whether he should lose his position.

"That's something that the prime minister should answer to and has discussed - it's not up to me," she said.

West Coast-Tasman MP Maureen Pugh admitted she had not seen Luxon's apology because she left her phone in Wellington over the weekend.

Pugh said Peters' comments were "ill-conceived" but when asked if she was surprised the that prime minister still supported Peters' to be foreign minister, she did not answer directly.

"We're in the downhill slope now of a three-year term. Let's just see out the last six weeks," she said.

Similarly, List MP Nancy Lu said she thought the comments were racist, but avoided questions on Peters.

It was the same from Upper Harbour MP Cameron Brewer, who said he was focused on other things.

"We are focused in these last few weeks on passing some key legislation, mainly around the Resource Management Act.

"It's been made clear that the prime minister has said that yes, those comments were racist, and we wish to move on."

Southland MP Joseph Mooney said everyone was responsible for their own words.

"The prime minister has made his his own views on those comments very clear... there's not much more to say really than that," he said.

 

Luxon misread the room - Labour leader

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Morning Report the Prime Minister had misread the room when he told Rotorua small business owners that they had a "parent-child mentality".

Hipkins said small businesses were important to the New Zealand economy, and he understood the personal contribution and sacrifice they made.

"When they raise legitimate concerns with the prime minister, as they did last week, they deserve to be respected and treated seriously, not spoken to as if they're children and I think the prime minister has totally misread the room there."

Asked if he thought Labour could win the votes of small businesses, Hipkins said his party was going all out to win those votes.

ACT leader David Seymour told First Up it was up to the prime minister as to whether or not he decided to apologise.

"He obviously felt he had been misunderstood or perhaps misspoken what he was trying to get across and he'd caused some offence to some people, so he apologised and good on him."

Seymour said he would be worried if Luxon never got anything wrong and worried if he never got anything right, but it seemed the prime minister, like most people, was operating somewhere in between.