‘In my dealings with Australians it always pays to be incredibly simple,’ Chris Luxon tells MPs
NZ PM takes swipe at Australians after Māori language removed from official letterAustralian Associated PressNew Zealand’s prime minister has defended the removal of the Māori language from an official invitation sent to an Australian government minister by saying “in my dealings with Australians it always pays to be incredibly simple”.
This week the broadcasters TVNZ revealed that the culture minister, Paul Goldsmith, had instructed officials to remove several te reo expressions from an invitation to Matariki, the annual celebrations of theThe Māori words included the greeting “tena koe” , the sign-off “nāku noa, nā” , and the removal of the widely accepted Māori name for New Zealand: Aotearoa.“It’s hardly the scandal of the century,” he said. “I just didn’t think it needed a lot of te reo in it ...
Luxon’s right-leaning coalition – of the conservative National party, the free-market libertarians ACT and the populist NZ First parties – has reduced its use in government since taking office last November.The government has issued edicts to public servants to stop communicating in te reo, and asked government departments to rebadge with English names, scrapping or de-prioritising the Māori names given more prominence during Jacinda Ardern’s government.
“It’s just a shameful act ... it’s an insult, not just to Māori people but to this country,” the opposition Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson told TVNZ. “Here we are trying to celebrate this language and you’ve got a minister acting contrary to that.”
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