New Zealand First's Shane Jones defends comparing India FTA to 'butter chicken tsunami'

Shane Jones says his parliamentary colleagues have told him to tone down his language but says he gets "cut-through on debates by deploying hyperbole" like calling Indians coming to New Zealand a "butter chicken tsunami".

The prime minister said the comments in relation to New Zealand signing a free trade agreement with India are unhelpful - but stopped short of saying whether he thought they were racist.

New Zealand First does not support the India FTA, meaning National needs Labour's support to pass it through the House.

In a video circulating online, the New Zealand First deputy leader said his party would "never accept" the FTA, and that "unfettered immigration" would drive down the value of wages, clog up roads, and overwhelm the health system.

"I don't care how much criticism we get. I am just never going to agree with a butter chicken tsunami coming to New Zealand," Jones said.

On Tuesday morning, Jones told reporters on his way into Parliament that immigration would be a key issue this election year and it is his view that "immigration has been snuck into the free trade deal in a way that does not reflect the expectations of Kiwis".

He said he didn't want to "cross words with the prime minister" but disagrees with his characterisation of what the FTA will and won't do.

"I just say to the prime minister that New Zealanders are not going to tolerate unfettered immigration, ruining our foundation culture and clogging our services at a time we can hardly afford to upgrade the infrastructure that New Zealand has.

"The media will never cancel the Dalmatian Māori because he uses hyperbole and dismiss it as racism. Kiwis are flocking to my cause. Immigration, unfettered, unmitigated, has had a lot of negative impacts," Jones said.

The senior Cabinet minister acknowledged some MPs had told him to tone the language down.

"There have been various members of the Parliament who have said: 'Oh, come on, Jonesy. We know you like your one liners, but can you just taiho and talk in a far more prosaic term'," he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Morning Report earlier that the comments were "racist at the least" and called on Luxon to be stronger in his language.

At his post cabinet media conference on Monday, Luxon said he had not seen Jones' comments, but thought they were a "gross misrepresentation" of what the FTA was about.

"I don't know. I'm just saying the immigration story that they are scaremongering around is absolutely false. We have taken them through the data, we have taken them through the details of that deal. We'll continue to do so, because we would love them to rethink their position," Luxon said.

"I appreciate they've got a pretty hard no against anything around free trade agreements. I just think that makes New Zealand poorer."

Pushed on whether he thought Jones' comments were racist, Luxon said it "doesn't sound right", and it was "alarmist" and "unhelpful" language.

"You can call it racist, you know, the colourful language from Shane Jones, we're used to Shane Jones doing lots of oratorial flourishes as he is prone to do. But the bottom line for me is he's wrong. There is not going to be an influx of immigration. This deal is well thought through."

Luxon said he appreciated New Zealand First had its own position on the FTA, but that the position was "frankly wrong".

"It creates huge opportunity for people that I would have thought New Zealand First would have cared about. Foresters, aquaculture, our farmers, our horticulturalists. This is a great deal."

Standing next to Luxon, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the comments were "not helpful."