The Prime Minister is still negotiating whether he'll return to Waitangi next year.

He scrapped his appearance at Te Tii Marae earlier this year, after uncertainty over protests and whether he'd be allowed on.

John Key said, as a bare minimum, he'd have to be allowed to speak.

"It's a ridiculous situation to expect me as Prime Minister to get berated by a group of people and then not be able to actually respond with factually what the government is doing."