Labour leader Phil Goff is being accused of playing the race card after saying the Government made shabby, cynical deals with the Maori Party to get the emissions trading scheme through Parliament.
He used the term "pork bone politics" to describe negotiations he said took place in secret and favoured big Maori corporates.
"We can choose our future based on principle and with the interests of all New Zealanders at heart," he told a Grey Power meeting in Palmerston North.
"Or we can have a country where one New Zealander is turned against another, Maori against Pakeha, in a way that Labour strongly rejects."
But the Maori Party said it was Mr Goff who was being racially divisive.
"The messages Labour is sending out are dangerous," said MP Rahui Katene.
"It is clear that Labour is running a campaign to divide Maori and Pakeha."
Ms Katene said Labour was telling Maori media that the Maori Party "got peanuts" in the ETS deal, while it told mainstream media the Government gave away too much.
"Mr Goff is doing his hardest to polarise the public into attacking Maori through launching a misguided campaign that Maori are getting special treatment when they are not," she said.
The Labour leader also criticised the Government for reviewing the Foreshore and Seabed Act, which is part of National's support agreement with the Maori Party.
He said the Act was being cynically re-opened for political purposes.
"It's hard to see why the country should be put through all the grief just to put a new brand on law that's working," he said.
That appeared to contradict a statement issued in July by Labour's Maori affairs spokesman Parekura Horomia and shadow attorney-general David Parker.
"National's change of heart has established an opportunity to revisit the Act," they said.
"Labour accepts the current legislation needs amendment."
Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said Mr Goff didn't have the right to even talk about the legislation, which was enacted by the previous government.
"It's a very desperate move...let's hope he doesn't stir up something when there's nothing there," Dr Sharples said.
Senior cabinet minister Gerry Brownlee said Mr Goff's speech was ridiculous.
"It's a masterpiece of confusion and hypocrisy...he's decided there are several pardes in town and he's going to wave a flag at each of them and see whether anyone notices."
NZPA