KEY POINTS:
Labour's leadership say comments Maori Party leader Pita Sharples made yesterday highlight the natural match between the two parties.
But National say the party is arrogant to say that.
Dr Sharples told The Press newspaper the Maori Party would prefer Labour to win the election because that is what its supporters wanted.
"The feeling is still there - Maori are joined at the hip with Labour. There is no doubt about it."
Fellow co-leader Tariana Turia said today the party will still talk with National after the election, despite Dr Sharples's comments.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said Dr Sharples was correct.
"He has called that absolutely right," she told reporters in Auckland today.
"There is no question that overall Maoridom wants the return of the Labour-led Government."
Miss Clark said Labour had done a lot to improve conditions for Maori and advanced Treaty settlements.
"I don't think National has ever really understood MMP. MMP is about relationships, it's about being able to build a majority around confidence and supply, around issues that are before the Parliament, they have never understood that."
Her deputy Michael Cullen said he suspected Dr Sharples inclined towards Labour views himself, and that he was commenting on what Maori in Maori electorates were telling him; "that they want the Maori Party to go with a Labour-led government.
"It's a great deal easier for the Maori Party to go with a Labour-led government if we have a higher vote than National. I presume that's what his mental process was."
He added: "They are in a position where they have to say what their options are and they've indicated what their preferences are in that respect. I don't think you could expect more from a minor party."
A spokesman for National Party leader John Key said Miss Clark and Dr Cullen's comments were arrogant.
"That shows quite a bit of arrogance to presume they have a natural connection with Maori, after the little they have done for Maori over the past nine years."
Average wages had dropped and Maori had fallen back in many ways and Labour did not have the record to back up their claim, he said.
The Maori Party have set a high bar for any deal with National - yesterday releasing a Treaty policy which included entrenching the Maori seats in the Electoral Act as a bottom line in any post-election talks.
National wanted to move to abolish the seats from 2014.
Speaking to reporters in the Hawke's Bay today Mr Key said those were issues for after the election.
"I'm not going to prejudge the negotiations we have with the Maori Party or any other political party at this point. We'll go into any negotiations we have with complete faith," he said.
"It seems to me, if I understand what they're saying correctly - I've had no direct conversations with them - (the bottom line is) about a formal coalition."
Mrs Turia said the party was interested in talking to all the political parties and all doors were open.
National MP Lockwood Smith's comments that Asians were good vineyard workers because of their small hands and that some Pacific Islanders needed to be taught to use a toilet had offended the Maori Party.
Mrs Turia yesterday lashed Dr Smith and said had there not been an apology it would have affected the relationship between the parties.
Mr Key yesterday would not be drawn on what ground National might be prepared to give in post-election talks if it needed the support of the Maori Party to form a government.
On current polling National would be able to govern with the support of ACT, but it would only take a small drop in its popularity for the Maori Party to hold the balance of power.
- NZPA
