KEY POINTS:
The Maori Party goes into a meeting with Prime Minister-elect John Key tomorrow with the deck stacked against it.
National does not need the party's support to govern, but has still extended an invitation to talk.
The Maori Party MPs were holding their cards close to their chests yesterday about any possible concessions from National.
All seven Maori-seat MPs - the four Maori Party incumbents, their new colleague in Te Tai Tonga, Rahui Katene, and Labour's Parekura Horomia ( Ikaroa-Rawhiti) and Nanaia Mahuta (Hauraki-Waikato) - appeared on TVNZ's Marae yesterday.
Afterwards, co-leader Tariana Turia said it would be "premature" to say what portfolios the Maori Party might be interested in, or what would be on the table at the meeting.
"We don't hold the cards, they do, and we've agreed to meet with them because they've asked us," she said.
Fellow co-leader Pita Sharples, who has mooted his party holding responsibility for health or education budgets targeted at Maori, said making real gains was a priority.
"Too many of us [Maori] are incarcerated. Too many of us are poor, and in education we haven't closed the gap. So these are the areas that we are desperate to have an impact [on] over our period in Parliament."
Ms Turia acknowledged that without all seven Maori seats her party's bargaining power was reduced.
"[Voters] had the opportunity to vote to put seven of our people there; [they] only chose five. That makes it very difficult then for us to have the significant voice we were hoping for. We were very clear with our people as we moved around that that was what we were seeking."
While two extra seats wouldn't have made a difference to National's coalition, it would have given the Maori Party a strong foundation for all things Maori in Parliament.
Mr Horomia, the outgoing Maori Affairs Minister, said it was "fascinating" the two parties were talking.
"I would strongly advise caution. ... It'll be interesting but it depends on what the National Party offers them," he said.
During Marae, Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira was characteristically blunt when asked about Labour's Mahara Okeroa losing his seat to Ms Katene.
"No offence to Mahara but [he is] hardly top 10, if you know what I mean."
He drew a laugh when asked about what his activist mother, Titewhai, thought about the country having a National government.
" ... I know that, at the end of the day, what she really wants is for me to be prime minister."
