KEY POINTS:
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia is distancing her party from notions that the Maori Party wants to be a "Treaty partner" in Parliament.
The suggestion, promoted by her own MPs, has annoyed some hapu and iwi - such as Ngati Porou - who say the Treaty was signed between the Crown and hapu and iwi (sub-tribes and tribes), not the Maori Party.
And it has also irked constitutional purists - such as former Cabinet minister Sandra Lee - who say all MPs, including Maori electorate MPs, are part of the Crown and swear their allegiance to it when they are sworn in.
And reporters have not been able to get a sense of what the manifestation of Treaty partnership in parliamentary terms might really mean.
Mrs Turia herself has been annoyed by some of the criticism of her party and last week issued a clarifying statement on the Treaty of Waitangi and her party's role today.
She said the party was not the Treaty partner but represented the Treaty partner (hapu and iwi).
She said that since Maori electorates were set up in 1867, their MPs had been recognised as "the most appropriate vehicle for facilitating the dreams and aspirations of the Treaty partner, that is iwi and hapu collectives within their electorate".
"The Maori Party has always been very clear - we are here to represent the people who put us in here - the Treaty partner," Mrs Turia said.
"The Maori seats stand as the clearest expression of the constitutional responsibilities of Parliament to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the foundation of our nation," she said. "That is precisely why they dominate our thinking."
Mrs Turia prefers to advocate for any post-election arrangement to be a "Treaty-based relationship".
She says the party has never wanted to be the Treaty partner.
But there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.
The concept of an electoral connection between the Maori seats and an explicit Treaty partnership has been promoted frequently by Mrs Turia's fellow MPs.
Tamaki Makaurau MP Pita Sharples on Sky TV: "We present Maori in their many states, not just tribal or hapu but everything Maori in the first place.
"And that's why we can say we are the Treaty partner because we represent Maori issues like that."
Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira on YouTube: "You deserve the right for there finally to be a Treaty partner in the House representing your interests."
Apirana Mahuika, the chairman of Te Runanga o Ngati Porou, said yesterday he disliked a political party calling itself a Treaty partner.
"It can't be because it wasn't around when the Treaty was signed. The only people who were around were the tribes through their whanau and hapu.
"There were signatories of Ngati Porou who signed the Treaty of Waitangi, not the Maori Party.
"So the Maori Party or any other party for that matter claiming to speak for Ngati Porou ... are totally out of their league."
While Mrs Turia rejects the Treaty partner label, it is clear her party is defining any post-election decision in terms of the Treaty.
Mrs Turia told the Herald last month that any party the Maori Party dealt with would have to recognise "tangata-whenua-tanga".
She said the party's aim was to hold the balance of power in every election.
"Absolutely, that's what we are striving for.
"That is what the Treaty guaranteed us, that we would participate fully in this country and we have never been able to."
