Kathryn Armstrong
BBC News
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MPs are able to use English, maori or New Zealand sign language, when they speak to parliament
The president of the Chamber in the New Zealand Parliament says that he will not consider any other complaints of the legislators on the use of the Maori name of the country in the procedures.
“Aotearoa is regularly used as New Zealand name,” President Gerry Brownlee said on Tuesday in a decision in Parliament.
His comments come after the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters asked Brownlee to prohibit the use of the Aotearoa name, and suggested that a referendum would be necessary for anyone to use it in Parliament.
While New Zealand is the legal name of the country and can only be modified by law, Aotearoa, which results in “Land of the Long White Cloud”, has long been used during the reference to New Zealand in Māori.
“He (Aotearoa) appears on our passports and he appears on our motto,” Brownlee said on Tuesday. The name is also used in the Maori version of the New Zealand national anthem, which is generally heard before the English version.
“If other members do not like certain words, they do not have to use them. But it is not a question of order, and I do not expect that other order points are raised on this subject,” he added.
MEPs are authorized to use one of the three official languages of the country – English, Maori and New Zealand sign language – when they speak in Parliament.
The objection of Peters, which is Maori, occurred last month, when the Green MP Ricardo Mennendez used it during a parliamentary session.
“Why is someone who asked to come to this country in 2006 authorized to ask this parliament that changes the name of this country without the referendum and the sanction of the New Zealand people?” Asked Peters.
Menéndez March is from Mexico but is a New Zealand citizen, as all deputies must be.
Shane Jones, another Minister of the Government who is a member of the first party of Peters of Peters and is also Maori, questioned “the relevance of recent immigrants saying to the Maori what should be the name of our country?”
At the time, Brownlee encouraged the legislators to use the name of Aotearoa New Zealand instead to avoid any confusion, but said that it was not a requirement.
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Shane Jones (left) and Winston Peters (right) are both members of the first New Zealand celebration
Not all Maori have the same link with the Aotearoa name, which was initially used to describe only the island of northern New Zealand. However, it is often used by non-Māori out of respect for indigenous peoples.
Winston Peters said on Tuesday that he disagreed with Brownlee’s decision, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.
He added that he had only one problem with Aotearoa used in Parliament, no Māori in general, and that if a question was addressed to him in the future using the name, he would not answer.
The use of Maori in public has developed considerably in all New Zealand in recent decades, following the advocacy of Aboriginal leaders.
A petition was launched in 2022 by the Maori party, an official political party, to officially change the name of the country to aotearoa, which received more than 70,000 signatures.
“New Zealand is a Dutch name and has no connection with this Whelua (Land). How many people in Aotearoa can even indicate” Old “Zealand on a map?” The Maori party co-leader, Rawiri Waititi, said at the time.
Since the current administration came to power in 2023, he demanded that the ministries prioritize their English names and communicate mainly in English, unless they are specifically linked to the Maori.
Another member of the coalition, the ACT party, also seeks to redefine the terms of the founding document of New Zealand, the Waitangi Treaty, which encountered fierce opposition.
