"In Waitangi [at Te Tii] they challenge the government about their policies. Here [at the upper marae], they don't. They massage the Government's back and so it's quite different."
One example was the Trans-Pacific Partnership which Taurua has previously spoken against and the Labour Government is about to sign.
Taurua said he had been asked to speak in the powhiri for Ardern but Pita Paraone, the former chairman of the Waitangi National Trust, said no invitation to speak had been issued.
"That's news to me. If he's going to use it as a platform - the same he has used in previous years to incite those of our younger people to protest in the way they have done in recent years then I'm not sure that's a good thing."
He said there was nothing wrong with raising specific political issues but the powhiri was not the place to do it.
This part of the whole weekend it about welcoming people to Waitangi. It's not about presenting our visitors with what are really political issues."
He acknowledged the people of Te Tii were unhappy with the decision. "But I don't think they should be surprised given the reaction from the people of the North over recent years. It was timely the decision was made."
Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy was welcomed to the upper marae yesterday without incident and said it was a "new dawn".
However, she was diplomatic about Te Tii saying the powhiri for her there the year before had also been "wonderful".
Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford attended NZ First MP Shane Jones' Waitangi party last night.
Ardern was called to speak, and said he hadn't come to speak: "I just came for the kai."
She thanked Jones for his hospitality and congratulated him on his wedding and then ended: "As Aupito William Sio always says, when you smell the pork, keep it short."
In his welcome to her, Jones said there was a big eye tuna "and I can assure you Prime Minister it doesn't come from the Kermadecs".
After today's powhiri Ardern will visit a local school for a picnic before attending the Navy's Beat Retreat.
Tomorrow she will attend the dawn ceremony before hosting a barbecue for the public - her version of Key's more formal Waitangi breakfast for iwi leaders and local dignitaries.
Meanwhile, Ardern told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB this morning her team had plenty of meetings scheduled during her time in Northland, including new Treaty Negotiations minister Andrew Little.
"I know the Minister of Education has been having meetings and so has our Minister for Treaty Negotiations has been sitting down with Ngapuhi while he's been here."
Tourism was also on the agenda, she said.
As for sorting out treaty grievances, Ardern said she'd had good feedback about the work Little had been doing.
"Of course he's a new minister as well so he's needing to reform those relationships and start as a new minister with Ngapuhi on working though but everyone seems very optimistic on what's happening there."
Ardern also clarified confusion around the Government's policy on foreign buyers, that if they built a home they had to flick it off after 12 months.
She said it was making sure that the foreigners who were coming, were moving to New Zealand to live here and contribute to the economy.
"That still sticks with the principle we talk about. If you have the right to live here you should have the right to buy here and so we're talking there about permanent residents and so that's something that's probably reasonably straightforward."
Ardern said it got complicated due to the range of categories in which people lived in New Zealand long term.
"So as we've been working through policy we've been trying to accommodate that ... if you are contributing to our supply then that's a different story. But contributing to our supply means of course putting it back into the market.
"If you're not living here but you buy a piece of land and build a home we don't want you to still have a place that sits down empty half the time, that you might visit for two weeks of the year. So it's about genuinely contributing to our supply."
Hosking said Business NZ had the view that policy might turn away investors wanting to start developments in the country, but Ardern poured cold water on that.
"I would disagree with that. If someone who, for instance, by and large is making a business of developing properties in New Zealand that is contributing to our supply and that is their focus, we talk specially about making the part easier for them because that is the kind of investment and development we benefit from."
Ardern provisions had already been made for that to happen.
"What we're trying to capture here is someone who may not have any interest long term in New Zealand and who might buy a home simply for capital gain."
The prime minister was also questioned about immigration figures showing there were already people fleeing the country.
"Those projections have been made for a while that we would see that. You're absolutely right though we've got to target those who we absolutely need to attract and particularly continually hear from our regions that that's necessary."
A way of tackling that was through specific visa categories, she said.
"The problem is we haven't always been great at making sure that the skills that we were bringing in were the ones that we absolutely had a dire need for. So, that of course remains our focus."
Hosking also put Forsyth Barr's predictions that the Government's minimum wage rise to $20 by 2021 would lead to high wage inflation and higher unemployment.
But Ardern said the previous Labour government managed to successfully increase the wage nine times in nine years, so had no doubts they could do the same.
"Careful management meant that at the same time we had some of the lowest unemployment in the OECD. It's our view that we can get the balance right. We've got to start thinking about why we're doing this though.
"We're asking people at the moment to survive on wages that just don't provide for them and as a result the state ends up supplementing their income, and so we have to see wage increases that allow people to live on what is considered our legal minimum wage and that's the balance we're trying to reach."
