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Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia - Source: ONE News -
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Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia does not think Prime Minister John Key's decision to stop fellow co-leader Pita Sharples travelling to Fiji is mana-enhancing.
Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama took power in a 2006 coup and Fiji was suspended last week from the 16-nation Pacific Islands Forum for not making progress on holding democratic elections.
Sharples sparked controversy on Tuesday telling reporters he was considering going to Fiji as part of a Maori delegation after earlier telling Key he would not.
Key was emphatic in his response saying no ministers would be given permission, as required under Cabinet manual rules, to go to Fiji.
Both Maori Party co-leaders are also ministers.
Turia said she accepted Key's directive.
Sharples had previously described the relationship between the Maori Party and National as "mana enhancing".
Asked if the decision to refuse Sharples permission to travel fitted that description, Turia said: "Probably not, probably not. I think the issue is that Minister Sharples has accepted that."
Both ministers accepted that there were rules that went along with agreeing to become ministers.
"I guess just some of the confusion was that originally when we talked about Minister Sharples going over that the prime minister did say that there didn't seem to be any difficulty from the Government if he went as Maori Party co-leader.
"He's now saying being the minister and being the co-leader is one and the same."
Key accepted on Tuesday that he may have caused confusion.
"But I think I made it reasonably clear yesterday and certainly I made it crystal clear today."
Labour Maori Affairs spokesman Parekura Horomia said the issue showed friction between the parties and followed on from their disagreement about the dropping of Maori seats for the proposed super city in Auckland.
Another Labour MP, Kelvin Davis, said the Maori Party was "struggling with its role in the government and the responsibilities that entails".
Key did not think the relationship with the Maori co-leaders was negatively affected by the issue.
"We have a very good and fruitful working relationship, it's expansive, it crosses a lot of issues," he said.
"Over the next two-and-a-half years there's going to be plenty of things we debate and some things we don't agree on - that's a function of being different political parties."
Key was concerned Bainimarama would use the visit as a propaganda tool.
A visit by the American Samoa Senate was used that way, he said.
New Zealand was willing to help Fiji if progress was made towards elections.
Turia and Sharples later described the Fiji delegation as "a Maori delegation going to visit the people of Fiji".
"There is considerable interest from iwi and Maori leadership but at this stage no decisions have been made on who might go, or when."
It is understood Maori MP Hone Harawira is likely to go.
