Treaty ground fee: 'You're charging people to see your history'

File photo / APN

New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters is at odds with one of his new MPs Waitangi National Trust chairman Pita Paraone over the trust's move to charge kiwis to visit the treaty grounds in the Bay of Islands.

As of Saturday New Zealanders will pay $15 to visit the grounds with children up to 18 free if accompanied by parents or caregivers. The charge for overseas visitors will remain at $25 with children free.

Labour's new Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvis Davis has hit out at the decision saying if there was one place in the country that should be free to New Zealanders, it was the birthplace of the nation.

Mr Peters today said Mr Davis was "120 per cent correct" to say New Zealanders shouldn't be charged.

"It sends all the wrong signals. You're charging people to see your history either international or domestic it just doesn't make any sense from a historical point of view, it really is a very unfortunate development, it should never have happened and should never have got to that state of affairs."

Speaking from Thailand today Mr Paraone said as chairman of the trust he was "very supportive" of the decision to charge New Zealanders, "although saddened to have to make it".

"The reality is that we have a responsibility to care for that estate and if you consider the state it has been kept in over the years I think the trust has done an excellent job but with the declining overseas visitor rates, this is follow on effect of that lack of income from that source."

Prime Minister John Key said charging New Zealanders for entry was "a step in the wrong direction".

"It's a very special place for such a long list of reasons and I think conceptually I think it would be much better to keep as free entry for New Zealanders."

Both Mr Peters and Mr Davis said the Government should give the trust more funding to allow it keep free entry for New Zealanders but Mr Key said that wasn't going to happen.

"They might argue for that but I think I would probably make the case that they've been making substantial investments over the last four or five years from what I can see, they seem to have done that very satisfactorily from the income stream they've got."

Other than entry fees the trust gets income from leasing land, primarily that which the Copthorne Hotel sits on.

Mr Paraone, who plans to remain in his unpaid role as chairman of the trust while in Parliament, said the trust's recent investment included "assets like the recent sale of national assets that the Government put up for offer".

"We've got an investment portfolio and I'm reluctant to give you details of that."