KEY POINTS:
The Maori Party is warning that policies to abolish the Maori seats in Parliament could compromise post-election negotiations to form the next government.
National yesterday confirmed its intention to abolish the seven seats, linked with its goal of settling all historical Treaty claims by 2014.
Labour has never had a policy to abolish the seats, and has said that will happen only when Maori want an end to special representation.
Maori Party MP Hone Harawira did not specifically mention National, but he said other political parties should "tone down their rhetoric".
"We won't be doing deals with parties who plan to silence our peoples' views," he said.
"It took us 150 years for our voice to be heard in the halls of power and our people won't stand for anyone trying to take it away again," he said.
National's leader, John Key, caused initial confusion yesterday when he appeared to indicate during a morning interview that the party had never had a deadline for abolishing the Maori seats.
He later confirmed it still did.
"Our policy is to start that constitutional process once we've finished the historical Treaty claims process," he said.
Abolition of the Maori seats is a delicate issue for the main parties because it could hold the balance of power after the next election.
That would mean negotiating with it to achieve a safe majority in Parliament.
- NZPA
