KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday fired salvos at the "useless rhetoric" and peculiarly friendly relationship between John Key and Maori sovereignty nationalists at Waitangi.
Helen Clark was highly critical of the warm reception accorded Mr Key yesterday and hinted again at a hidden agenda for Maori under National.
"All I can say is at least Dr Brash was honest about what he thought his National Party [was] as leader."
She made her comments at a small country marae in Karetu, 20km away from Waitangi where Mr Key spent the day engaging with Maori nationalists, including Tame Iti.
"I have long found that the sovereignty movement gave National leaders far warmer welcomes than Labour leaders," Helen Clark said. "I think it is something to do with wanting to heighten the contradictions."
Labour on the other hand had attended "assiduously" to articles two and three of the Treaty of Waitangi (preservation of lands, forests and taonga; and equal rights of citizenship).
"I am waiting for the National Party to vote for a single treaty settlement negotiated by us.
She challenged National to vote for the customary title agreement with Ngati Porou under foreshore and seabed legislation that was announced yesterday.
"Otherwise everything that happens here between National Party leaders and Maori is useless rhetoric."
Helen Clark and John Key both attended a cocktail function at the Copthorne Hotel, Waitangi,
where Governor-General Anand Satyanand hosted drinks before an Auckland garden party today.
Mr Key and Helen Clark did not encounter each other at the function, though Mr Key said he was not avoiding her.
He will attend the dawn service this morning in the marae on the national treaty grounds where National leaders have frequently been asked to speak.
Helen Clark last attended a dawn service there in 2000 when she was shouted down by a housing activist and subjected to abuse.
She will host her own private breakfast at the Copthorne Waitangi this morning before heading back to Auckland.
Her reception at the Karetu marae was the dignified event she had hoped it would be.
Labour's Maori MPs met there earlier in the day and supported educationist and former principal Kelvin Davis of the area be confirmed as the candidate for Te Tai Tokerau.
Retiring MP Dover Samuels suggested that Helen Clark make a tradition of visiting the marae rather than Te Tii Marae where she could hear "all that humbug".
He condemned all the "scratching of the back" that was going on at Waitangi when it was National's policy to abolish the Maori seat - when treaty settlements are complete.
Without mentioning the Maori Party he said any promise of what others would deliver would be matched by Labour's record of what it had delivered.
Helen Clark herself spoke in the wharenui of Labour's record of achievement - and of the further steps it wanted to take.
Following on from her state of the nation speech last week, she argued the case again for raising what she called "the education age" rather than the school leaving age.
And she cited De La Salle College in Mangere, a decile one Catholic Boys School, for its achievement in having 90 per cent of its students leaving with level two NCEA, when the national average was 60 per cent.
"What is De La Salle doing that every school could be?"
Mr Key later disputed Helen Clark's implication that National had not voted for treaty settlements under a Labour Government.