KEY POINTS:
Labour's Maori MPs are seizing on the Maori Party's failure to secure the numbers for its Foreshore and Seabed repeal bill to suggest it has betrayed its voters and that National has betrayed the Maori Party.
National leader John Key met the Maori Party MPs yesterday to confirm what he said in January, that National would not support the private member's bill to a select committee.
But the Maori Party says its supporters do not see it as a one-issue party and are confident they will stick with it.
Co-leader Tariana Turia said she had not been misled by the National leadership but her party was "incredibly disappointed" and believed National had not lived up to its principles.
"This is a party that's gone around the country talking about one law for all, equal access to justice ... and yet on this particular issue they are prepared to treat us differently to other New Zealanders."
The party would continue to talk to all political parties "but of course this may colour our view of our relationship with them. We need to build trust and I think that's very important in any relationship. Right at this moment we kind of feel the trust may have been damaged a bit."
Labour list MP Dover Samuels called on the Maori Party to resign.
"I think the Maori people could see right through this whole sham. It is the biggest fraud on the Maori nation since the non-implementation of the Treaty of Waitangi."
Maori list MP Shane Jones said: "The kaupapa [issue] that brought them to Parliament has been smashed at the feet of their coalition potential partners, National."
He said Mr Key had a "mercurial, slippery quality abut him".
Labour's Maori MPs were vilified for supporting the Foreshore and Seabed Act last term, a law that followed a landmark Court of Appeal decision, and Mr Samuels lost his Te Tai Tokerau seat to Maori Party MP Hone Harawira.
The judgment opened up the possibility for Maori to claim freehold title of the foreshore and seabed through the Maori Land Court.
Labour's Foreshore and Seabed Act closed that off, and also common law rights to claim customary title, and sets up a statutory regime to recognise customary use rights.
Mr Key said the meeting yesterday had been "a good constructive meeting".
"I don't think I have made any public or private statements that would indicate that that position had ever changed."
