Prime Minister Jenny Shipley has toned down her enthusiasm for using Maori activist Titewhai Harawira as an escort at a pre-Waitangi Day discussion forum.
Mrs Shipley said at the weekend that Mrs Harawira's offer was a way of bridging broken ground and she accepted it was made in good faith.
But yesterday
she said through a spokesman that while welcoming all invitations, any decision would be made in consultation with local Maori organisers of the February 5 forum.
Labour has expressed outrage at Mrs Harawira's acting as a crown escort, claiming it was not a role for someone with her background.
In 1989 Mrs Harawira was sentenced to a nine-month prison term for assaulting a patient at the Whare Paia Maori psychiatric unit, which she headed at Carrington Hospital in Auckland.
Last Waitangi Day she reduced Labour leader Helen Clark to tears after objecting to her speaking on the Waitangi Marae.
Despite this, Mrs Harawira is a member of the Waitangi Commemorations organising group this year.
A Ngapuhi elder, Graham Rankin, said it was "a load of rubbish" that Mrs Shipley had accepted Mrs Harawira's offer. She made the offer to the Prime Minister in December but Mrs Shipley did not commit herself.
Helen Clark said yesterday she was likely to return to Waitangi this year.
