The other candidates in the running would likely get into Parliament via their party lists, the party said when it launched its campaign this month.
Depending on election results, the strategy could mean that an overhang of more than 120 MPs in Parliament could be created.
Jackson told Q+A host Jack Tame on Sunday: “The reality is [the] Māori Party have come out with their strategy. Good luck to them. They’ve said that they’re going to gift the party vote. We’ll take the party vote.”
Labour’s strategy has been clear, he said; it wants two ticks.
“We’re out to win the Māori seats. We’ve made it very clear. We’ve got some brilliant candidates.
“We had a great launch yesterday and we want to get rid of this terrible anti-Māori Government. That’s how we see it.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins (left) with senior MP Willie Jackson at Waitangi earlier this year. Photo / Jason Dorday
It was at its Māori seats campaign launch yesterday where Hipkins said Labour was going to win the election “not by trying to rort the system”, Newsroom reported.
Tame questioned Jackson over whether the party’s 2017 strategy, where Māori electorate candidates were removed from the list, could be viewed in the same way as Te Pāti Māori’s.
Jackson said that was different because it was done to maximise the number of Māori MPs in the Labour Party.
“I’m saying we have to work the system at different times. What we did in 2017 was all the candidates came off the list to get more Māori in Labour up.”
His party’s strategy was one of kaupapa (policy) and whakapapa (genealogy), based around jobs, health and homes, Jackson said.
“We don’t come into this to try and work out an overhang, we come in this to win the Māori seats and to get rid of an anti-Māori, anti-worker, anti-woman Government.”
Jackson said he believed Labour had a chance to win all seven Māori electorate seats.