MPs said to stop complaining about the use of Maori's name

The Chairman of the Chamber of the New Zealand Parliament says he will not consider further complaints from the legislators over the use of the name of Maori of the country in production.

“Aotearoa is regularly used as the name of New Zealand,” said speaker Gerry Brownley in a decision in parliament on Tuesday.

His comments come after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters asked Brownlee to provide the use of the name Aotearoa and suggested that a referendum would be needed to allow everyone to use it in parliament.

While New Zealand is the legal name of the country and can only be changed by law, Aotearoa, which translates as the “Long White Cloud” land, has long been used when referring to New Zealand in Maori.

“This (Aotearo) appears on our passports and appears in our currency,” Brownley said on Tuesday. The name is also used in the Maori version of New Zealand's national anthem, which is usually heard before the English version.

“If other members do not like certain words, they should not use them. But it is not a matter of order and I do not expect additional points of orders to be raised,” he added.

MPs are allowed to use each of the three official languages ​​of the country – English, Maori and New Zealand – when they speak in parliament.

Peters, who is Maori, originated last month when Green Ricardo MP Menedes March used it during a parliamentary session.

“Why someone who applied to come to this country in 2006,” Peters asked.

Menéndez March was originally from Mexico, but he is a New Zealand citizen, as should be all MPs.

Shane Jones, another government minister, who is a member of New Zealand's first party of Peters, and is also Maori, asked “The expediency of the last immigrants who tell Maori what should be the name of our country?”

At that time, Brownley encouraged legislators to use the name Aotearo New Zealand instead to avoid confusion, but said it was not a requirement.

Not all Māori have the same connection to the name Aotearoa, which was originally used to describe the northern island of New Zealand. However, it is often used by non-Maors with respect for the indigenous population.

Winston Peters said on Tuesday that she disagreed with Brownley's decision, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.

He added that there was only a problem with Aotearoa to be used in parliament, not by Maori as a whole, and that if he was asked in the future using the name, he would not answer.

The use of Maori in public has increased significantly in New Zealand in recent decades, after intercession by indigenous leaders.

Petition was set in 2022 by the Maori Party, an official political party, to formally change the name of Aotearoa, which received more than 70,000 signatures.

“New Zealand is a Dutch name and has no connection when, when land). How many people in Aotearoa can even point to” old “Zealand on a map?” At that time, party-liderist Maori Rowi Wittit said.

As the current administration entered power in 2023, it requires government services to prioritize their English names and communicate mostly in English, unless they are specifically related to Maori.

Another of the coalition members, the ACT party, also seeks to redefine the terms of New Zealand's well -founded document – the Treaty of Waitangi, which has been met with a cruel opposition.