Labour in talks with former Police Association president Greg O'Connor

Greg O'Connor is rumoured to be interested in the Ohariu electorate. File photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour leader Andrew Little has confirmed discussions between the party and former Police Association president Greg O'Connor - saying O'Connor "lines up perfectly" with Labour's calls for better police resourcing.

O'Connor is rumoured to be interested in standing for Labour in the Wellington electorate of Ohariu, held by United Future leader Peter Dunne.

"I'd be lying if I said we haven't had discussions with him. But what happens with Ohariu or any seat where we are yet to select the candidate, that is yet to be done."

O'Connor often took a hardline stance on law and order when Police Association president, including calling for police officers to be armed.

Little said "Greg lines up perfectly" with Labour's position that there was a need for a well-resourced police force able to respond to victims.

"That's why we are promising extra police, and Greg would certainly line up absolutely comfortably with that. As indeed the Police Association under its current leadership already does."

O'Connor is a cousin to Labour and West Coast-Tasman MP Damien O'Connor, and is well known to many New Zealanders through his 21 years heading the Police Association.

He lives in Wellington with his family, and in a speech to the Johnsonville Rotary Club last year said he had been an Ohariu resident early in his police career and it "felt like coming home" to be back in Johnsonville.

Labour and the Greens formally agreed in May to campaign together, and have already made an electoral agreement in the Mt Roskill byelection, where the Greens did not stand a candidate.

Little said whether to stand candidates was a decision for each party. The Greens had not indicated whether they would stand in Ohariu, he said.