Labour leader Andrew Little says he has promised to contact the Green Party first in any coalition talks after the election.

"There is no question they will remain the first phone call I make after September 23rd if I am in the privileged position of putting together a Government," he told the <i>Herald</i> today.

Little made the comments after nominating New Zealand First leader Winston Peters to the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee, leaving no room for a Green MP on the committee.

The Greens wanted a place on the committee, but are endorsing Peters' nomination. In return, Labour has reassured the Greens that they are "first cab off the rank" in coalition talks.

It is a choreographed move in election year which is designed to show Labour, New Zealand First, and the Greens can work together.

"What it indicates, if anything, is a maturity about getting prepared for Government," Little said.

The arrangement still leaves the door open to the Greens being cut out of any coalition by Labour and New Zealand First, as they were in 2005. At the time, Peters made it clear that he would prefer the Greens were not involved.

Little had to nominate an Opposition MP to replace former Labour MP David Shearer, who left Parliament to take up a United Nations post in December.

The five-person Intelligence and Security Committee provides oversight to the NZ Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Government Communications and Security Bureau (GCSB).

Little said Peters, a former Foreign Minister, would be a valuable addition to the committee because of his "extensive experience" of New Zealand's security and intelligence agencies.

The other members on the committee are Prime Minister Bill English, SIS and GCSB Minister Chris Finlayson, and Justice Minister Amy Adams.

English said earlier this month that he did not want a Green MP on the Intelligence and Security Committee.

"They've got a deep-seated hostility to any intelligence apparatus at all, which is not a responsible attitude, and we wouldn't want to foster it."

Little said he did not agree, and he wanted the committee to be expanded to better reflect the makeup of Parliament.

His party is drafting an amendment to spying reforms currently before Parliament which would allow any party with "significant representation" in Parliament to have a MP on the committee.

This would require the committee to grow to nine members.

Nominations to the committee have previously been a sore point for the Greens, especially after Little replaced former Green co-leader Russel Norman with former MP David Shearer in 2015 without consulting the Greens.