KEY POINTS:
The Maori Party yesterday extended an olive branch to Labour with talk of a dinner with the Prime Minister - and Helen Clark accepted it.
After a two-day strategy caucus, co-leader Tariana Turia said yesterday at a press conference at Parliament that the party would be happy to have dinner with the Labour leader.
"I'm sure we are going to be building relationships with all of the political parties this year and we look forward to having dinner with the Prime Minister if she has the time to have dinner with us," Mrs Turia said.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister later said she would be happy to have dinner with the Maori Party.
Relations with Mrs Turia soured in 2004 when she left Labour over the Foreshore and Seabed Act to form the Maori Party, which was returned to Parliament in 2005 with four MPs.
But the party was snubbed by Labour in post-election talks and was referred to by Helen Clark as "the last cab off the rank".
Since then, the Maori Party has strengthened its relationship with National, with discussions over dinners with both former leader Don Brash and new leader John Key.
With the clear possibility that the Maori Party's numbers could be pivotal after the 2008 elections, both main parties are intent on improving their working relationship with them.
But Mr Key strongly hinted in Gisborne last night that might not extend to supporting the party's private member's bill seeking to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
Mrs Turia yesterday said National had indicated last year it would support the bill to a select committee, but Mr Key later disputed that.
"There are many things we see eye to eye with the Maori Party on," he said citing their working-for-the-dole policies and calls by co-leader Pita Sharples to address the gang problem.
"But there may be some things we don't agree on and that may well be the foreshore and seabed."
Mr Key is expected to soften National's stance on one of the major policy differences, the Maori seats, by setting a timeframe and conditions today for their abolition.
It appeared at the Maori Party press conference yesterday that there may be internal disagreement over their policy direction.
Mrs Turia declined to say if she endorsed Dr Sharples' call earlier this week to tackle the problem of gang intimidation by naming them.
"I'm not prepared to say."
She did, however, say it was not policy.
Referring to the caucus review of MPs' performance in the past 14 months, she noted there had been a lack of discipline at times and " making a bit of policy on the hoof at times, perhaps not saying things in the way that we should be for our people to understand exactly what we mean".
