PM says he's still open to having Maori seats on Super City council

Prime Minister John Key says National's decision to leave Maori seats out of new Auckland Council was "not set in stone," indicating the Government could be open to budging on it.

Mr Key was responding to comments made by Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia yesterday on TV One's Q&A that she did not believe it had yet lost the battle to secure seats on the Auckland Council.

Asked whether the Government was set on its decision not to include Maori seats, Mr Key said the seats were not in the Government's preferred option for the structure of Auckland governance - but it was still consulting interested parties.

"No, it's not set in stone. I've already met with representatives from Ngati Whatua and Tainui and I will continue to do so. But we've laid out our preferred option."

A Reid Research survey released last week showed a reasonably even split in opinions on the Maori seats - 46 per cent favoured including them and 54 per cent were against.

The issue of the seats is putting the provisions allowing the Maori Party to disagree with National to the test.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples has strongly opposed the Government's decision not to follow the royal commission's recommendation for Maori seats, including two "mana whenua" seats to be nominated by iwi, rather than elected by the public.

The Government has come under fire from other areas for going against several of the royal commissions' recommendations in its own proposals for the Super City, including having smaller councils beneath the Auckland Council. National has instead opted for 20 to 30 "local boards" which would have no funding powers and limited roles, acting mainly as advocacy groups for their communities.

National has said there are processes in the Local Government Act for individual local bodies to introduce Maori seats if there is a demand and there was an opportunity to poll on the issue in the 2010 local body elections.

Mrs Turia also said the party was considering its position on a private members' bill put forward by Labour's Mita Ririnui to entrench the Maori seats.

Entrenchment would mean they could be removed only by a 75 per cent vote in Parliament, or by a majority in a public referendum.

Her party was yet to decide its stance on the bill if it was drawn from the ballot and introduced to the House.

In its confidence and supply agreement, both National and the Maori Party agreed not to pursue the issue of entrenching the seats in this term of government.