Labour minister Michael Wood says it's "not a particularly big deal" the party's Hamilton West by-election candidate was spotted at a protest against minister Andrew Little.
He's also taken a jab at the new National Party candidate for running in a Hamilton electorate while being based in Auckland.
Labour candidate Georgie Dansey has denied being part of an ambush protest by the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) against Little at the University of Waikato last week. She said she was the campus as an education sector union representative and when she realised what was going on, quickly left.
However, Stuff reported this week that Dansey was aware of the protest against Little as she received an email from the TEU informing members of it.
Speaking to AM on Friday morning, Wood praised Dansey as a "really great local person" who also supports the TEU.
"She was invited to an event, as I understand it, to raise issues around pay and conditions of people in tertiary education," Wood said. "She wasn't aware it was going to be a thing where Andrew Little was. It turned out to be. She left when she became aware that was the situation."
He said "it's not a particularly big deal" before highlighting that the National Party candidate is based in Auckland, not Hamilton.
"He's from Auckland, of course, which it a little bit of an interesting choice for Hamilton."
Tama Potaka was selected as the blue party's candidate on Sunday. She's currently the chief executive of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, a former senior advisor to the NZ Super Fund and general manager of Hamilton's Tainui Group Holdings.
Stuff reported that he is currently based in Auckland but plans to move to Hamilton once "he becomes the MP".
He was defended on AM by National MP Erica Stanford.
"He's a good Tainui boy. I mean he was the general manager of Tainui so you know so he's got he's got roots in that area. He'll be a wonderful MP. He's really impressive. I've met him a number of times and boy, he's going to be really good for us," she said.
"I think actually Labour are a bit worried about the incredible Maori candidates that are now standing for National, four amazing Maori candidates. I'm so proud of them and Tama is going to be amazing."
Newshub last week revealed internal party polling commissioned by ACT which showed National's candidate had 44.7 percent support, Labour's was on 36.6 percent, trailed by ACT on 8.6 percent. Former MP Dr Gaurav Sharma only had 2.5 percent support.
The by-election has been forced by the resignation of Dr Sharma. He was kicked out of the Labour caucus in August after making unfounded allegations of bullying and secretly recording colleagues.
Dr Sharma claimed last month Labour was planning to use waka-jumping legislation to force him out closer to next year's general election. If he left Parliament within six months of the election, politicians could choose not to hold a by-election. He was concerned this would leave his Hamilton West constituents without an MP for months.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has said there was no plan to kick Dr Sharma out and a by-election was a "complete waste of taxpayer money".
In the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll released on Thursday night, 26.2 percent of people said the Prime Minister handled the Dr Sharma situation well, 44.5 percent said she didn't and 29.4 percent didn't know.
Newshub understands a Labour Party volunteer's membership has been terminated as they've been spotted wearing a shirt advertising Dr Sharma's new Momentum Party around town.
