Time's up on any hopes Labour MP Rino Tirikatene had for getting his bill to entrench the Māori seats across the line. NZ First's Winston Peters and Shane Jones have no interest in voting for it, nor does the rest of the party or the Opposition.

A Labour MP's bill to entrench the seven Māori seats will not have the numbers to pass due to opposition from both NZ First and National.

Rino Tirikatene, who holds the Te Tai Tonga seat for Labour, had his member's bill drawn out of the ballot last week.

His bill would give the seven Māori seats the same protection as the general seats, meaning a 75 per cent majority is needed to overturn them - currently Māori seats can be abolished with a majority of just 51 per cent.

But NZ First leader Winston Peters who campaigned on a referendum to abolish the Māori seats at last year's election said his colleague Shane Jones' position that neither he or any of the party's MPs would vote in favour of it was a "fair summation".

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It's understood the National Party also plans to oppose the bill - the Opposition's position on the Māori seats is that they'll stay as long as Māori want them but they don't stand candidates in the seats.

The NZ First caucus will officially decide which way its voting when it meets next week but Peters said entrenching the Māori seats was "not part and parcel of any coalition agreement and we're here to promote the coalition agreement we've got".

"Views like (Tirikatene's) can nevertheless be promoted by backbenchers but they cannot command the coalition agreement as a consequence," Peters said.

There was a time when NZ First held all of the then-five Māori seats but in more recent elections the party hasn't stood candidates in them.

Peters said entrenching the seats with a 75 per cent majority was a "false security" given a further legislative amendment that would require only a 51 per cent majority could remove the entrenchment clause.

In short that meant it wasn't something that could be enforced, he said.

Earlier Jones, who has previously stood in a Māori seat, ruled out voting for the bill and said, "I don't know anyone in our caucus who is going to vote for the entrenchment".

Jones is on the Māori roll but the option to switch to the general roll is currently underway and he's filled out his application, which means at the next election he'll once again be able to vote for himself.

"I've moved on from the Māori seats. I hope to stand again in our electorate in the North and I want to vote for myself."

Jones said his "prospects are a lot brighter" than a Māori seat but he understood there was "emotional heritage and affection" for the electorates.

"Obviously we took forward a referendum policy - if we could get that we would be very happy - but we got seven per cent of the vote so that didn't give us much leverage," he said.