By AUDREY YOUNG
Prime Minister Helen Clark is making plans to visit Waitangi on Waitangi Day but has left room to review that decision if the threat of disruption becomes too great.
She said she and her officials were "working on the assumption" she would return for national-day celebrations on February 6.
But she stopped short of saying she would definitely attend.
"I am working on the assumption that the arrangements will include some time at Waitangi and at least one other venue.
"My working assumption is that one doesn't want to go backwards, and last year I went to Waitangi."
Helen Clark also issued an open invitation for Ngapuhi to visit her to discuss concerns, saying her door was always open to the northern tribe.
Helen Clark indicated her willingness to attend Waitangi this year only after activist Titewhai Harawira pulled back from earlier demands that the Government meet Ngapuhi within two weeks to avoid big Waitangi Day protests over the new prison being built at Ngawha, near Kawakawa.
Mrs Harawira has since said she is "not happy about being seen as the bitch of the year, holding the country to ransom and causing all this violence".
Ngapuhi leaders have also said tribal issues should be isolated from national-day events and that Mrs Harawira does not speak for them.
Helen Clark told her first post-Cabinet press conference for 2003 that she often spoke to Mrs Harawira but had not done so this year.
"My officials are in dialogue with her off and on, as with a lot of people up north.
"Who knows? Nothing is planned but my door is always open if Ngapuhi want to come down."
A truce with Mrs Harawira helped secure Helen Clark's return to Waitangi last year, her first as Prime Minister.
As Opposition leader in 1998, Helen Clark was reduced to tears when Mrs Harawira disrupted the welcome to her, objecting to the Labour leader being accorded speaking rights ahead of Ngapuhi women.
Helen Clark returned in 1999, again as Opposition leader, but twice refused to go as Prime Minister.
She said protest itself would not keep her away. It had been a feature of Waitangi for years. "In general there is a lot of good will.
"From the point of view of most New Zealanders, people see Waitangi Day as a day when we can celebrate the kind of nation that we are. We are not perfect but there is a lot going for us."
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