Te Pāti Māori has been accused of "vanity signalling" by NZ First minister Shane Jones, who returned to parliament with his party following their "banishment", as Jones put it, in the 2020 election.

"It was vindication, really," Jones told The Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning.

Hosking asked Jones about the ritual pledging of allegiance to the Treaty of Waitangi and King Charles - which saw several MPs speak in both English and their second languages, which Hosking said spoke to the diversity of the elected officials.

"Most of the people who used second languages didn't set to pursue vanity signalling, which sadly I saw with my relations in the Māori Party," said Jones.

Jones said that what "raised his eye" the most was when the party held two toy guns to advertise the protest they'd rallied yesterday. It was an action the party's leader, Rawiri Waititi, said was to represent that Te Pāti Māori would not be quiet in Opposition.

Jones said there was a substantial number of New Zealanders with Māori whakapapa and a small minority who sent Te Pāti Māori officials into Parliament, but also noted there is a "very low" turnout in Māori seats generally.

"The reality is they're cultivating a strong connection with their constituency, while Winston [Peters] and myself, we're grappling with the economic challenges of the country," he said.

"We tend to regard culture as belonging at the kitchen table, place of worship, on the marae, and we shouldn't impose culture - that is best pursued on the marae or in a kaupapa - in Parliament."

Hosking observed that Māori have historically voted in blocks, with Labour, National and Te Pāti Māori all seeming to benefit from the swings over past decades. He asked Jones why the swing took place again this year to give Te Pāti Māori seats in Parliament.

Jones believed it was due to the previous Labour government "botching" the previous three years of governance.

"They created a set of expectations such as co-governance and they realised they couldn't deliver, because they uncorked a bottle that they couldn't control," the NZ First MP said.

"Once those seeds of expectation started to do the rounds among our younger Māori voters, Labour got punished for not backing up their rhetoric, and sadly they did that not only on Māori policy but a host of other things - not least of which is the energy policy which I'm happily reversing."

Jones said Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer were employing a rhetoric and energy that he predicted won't have the gas to go the distance.

He said they had contravened section 11 of the Constitution Act and that he'd go to see newly appointed Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee about it.

"If it's good enough for Winston and I to follow the letter of the law - and I resent that Winston and I somehow aren't authentic New Zealanders of Māori descent or indeed proud members of our various churches and maraes - it's good enough for them."