Labour leader Chris Hipkins is berating the Prime Minister for not bringing Shane Jones into line for his "knee pads" comment but is still refusing to rule out working with New Zealand First after the election.On Saturday, the New Zealand First deputy leader criticised supporters of the free trade agreement with India, and said he would continue to "call out" the levels of Indian migration into New Zealand."Labour Party, National Party, ACT Party, Green Party: the next time you go to an ethno-nationalist rally to receive a foreign leader, take off your knee pads. You represent the New Zealand Parliament," Jones said.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has called Jones' comments "crass and unprofessional" but has said it is up to Jones to be responsible for his language."I'll certainly be having a conversation with him, making it very clear that they're unacceptable comments. I've said that publicly; that's up for him to talk and express his own comments around that."Labour leader Chris Hipkins has said if he were in charge, Jones would have been sacked as a minister for making those comments.He indicated he would set an expectation around clear standards with any party that Labour negotiated with."One of the things that I would be endeavouring to set out right at the beginning is a clear understanding, a clear agreement, with those party leaders that we are expecting all ministers to uphold the standards set out in the Cabinet Manual, and that there will be consequences for those that don't."New Zealand First has already ruled out working with Labour in 2026, but Hipkins has not done the same in turn.On Tuesday, Hipkins said he had ruled out working with New Zealand First last time and that was "highly unlikely" to change, but repeated he would set out which parties Labour would and would not work with before the campaign began."Before Parliament finishes for the general election, we'll set out where we've got common ground with other parties."Of course, that conversation is now different to the one that we would have had if we'd done this six months ago. There's different permutations now, so we'll wait and see how things unfold over the next few months, and then we'll set that out."Asked if the Opportunity Party was one of those different permutations, Hipkins responded: "See, this is why we're going to do that closer to the election."