Maori MPs cool on powhiri directive

Minister Steve Maharey at a powhiri for the opening of the Families Commission offices in Auckland last year. File picture

Labour MP Shane Jones is distancing himself from Helen Clark's directive that women must be able to sit in the front row during state powhiri.

Two of her Maori ministers also appear uneasy about it.

The issue erupted again this week when the Maori Party called on Maori staff in Government institutions to boycott or prevent powhiri if they are not run in accordance with the protocol of local Maori.

Party co-leader Pita Sharples challenged Labour's Maori MPs to say if they supported Helen Clark, saying if they did she had steamrollered them.

The Maori Party, with National, continued to pressure Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia in Parliament yesterday, part of a strategy aimed at painting Labour's Maori wing as weak and ineffective.

Women sit in the front row, or on a seat to the side of the speakers' bench during powhiri in some places, but the practice is frowned on in others.

Helen Clark said last month it was now Government policy "that women can sit in the front row when being received at state facilities".

This went further than previously. When Corrections announced that powhiri would be largely replaced by a whakatau - a less formal welcome in which it said women and men could take the same roles - the Government indicated each agency would consider the matter for itself.

State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble was reported saying he was encouraging all government departments to examine the new Corrections practice and consider adopting it.

Several agencies indicated they were not planning to adopt it, with some saying they dealt with the gender issue on a "case-by-case basis".

Mr Jones took the unusual step yesterday of refusing to accept that Helen Clark had issued the directive.

Asked repeatedly if he supported it, he said: "I do not recall the Prime Minister delivering this supposed lofty edict. I'm quite sure the way I understood it was that each Government department had to reach an accommodation ... on a case-by-case basis."

Asked if he would support the Prime Minister's directive if he were aware of it, he said: "The question is hypothetical."

It was a "fraught area" and "Maori women will always have a lot to say about when and where protocol and culture changes".

Mr Horomia said he was "not too fussed about how powhiri happens in government agencies".

He also appeared to share Mr Jones' view of Helen Clark's position.

"That's been communicated for a while. Let government departments make their choice on how they run their departments and I'm certainly supportive of that."

Asked if she supported Helen Clark's stance, Tainui MP and junior minister Nanaia Mahuta said there were common sense ways of respecting Maori culture in a way that kept it accessible to all New Zealanders.

Asked if that meant she was endorsing what the Prime Minister said, she said "no. What it means is that I have seen tikanga exercised in Parliament, for example, in a way that is both respectful of our own culture and parliamentary protocol".