MPs told to stop complaining about use of Māori name

The Speaker of the House of Representatives in the New Zealand Parliament says he will not consider any other complaints from legislators about the use of the Maori name in the country in procedures.

“A whilearoa is regularly used as the name of New Zealand,” spokesman Jerry Brunley said in a ruling in Parliament on Tuesday.

His comments come after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters asked Braonley to prevent the use of the name aotearoa, and suggested that a referendum is needed for anyone to use it in Parliament.

While New Zealand is the legal name of the country and can only be changed under the law, Aotearoa, which translates into the “long white cloud land”, has long been used when referring to New Zealand in Maori.

“He – she [Aotearoa] “It appears on our passports and appears on our currency,” Brunley said on Tuesday.

“If the other members do not like certain words, they do not have to use them. But it is not a matter of arrangement, and I do not expect that I will have more regime points raised on this topic.”

Representatives are allowed to use any of the three official languages ​​in the country – English, Mauritanian and New Zealand sign language – when speaking in Parliament.

Peters, Al -Maori, was the objection of Maweri last month, when he was used by Green MP Ricardo Mendes, a march during a parliamentary session.

“Why is a person who submitted a request to this country in 2006 to ask a question about this parliament that changes the name of this country without the referendum of the New Zealand people?” Peters asked.

The Mindez career is originally from Mexico but it is a New Zealand citizen, and all deputies should be.

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

At that time, Brownle encouraged the legislators to use the A whilearoa new Zeland instead to avoid any confusion but he said it was not a condition.

Not all of Maori has the same relationship with the name Awzaroa, which was originally used to describe the North Island only in New Zealand. However, it is often used by non -miory out of respect for the indigenous people.

Winston Peters said on Tuesday that he disagreed with the rule of Brunley.

He added that he had only a problem with the use of A whilearoa in Parliament, not from Maori in general, and that if a question was asked in the future using the name, he will not answer.

Maori’s use in public places has grown all over New Zealand in recent decades, after calling from indigenous leaders.

A petition was launched in 2022 by the Maori Party, an official political party, to officially change the country’s name to Awzaroa, which received more than 70,000 signatures.

“New Zealand is a Dutch name and has no connection with this [land]. How many people in Uterwa can even refer to the “old” map? ”

Since the current administration reached power in 2023, it was required that government departments give English names and communicate primarily in English, unless they are specifically linked to Maari.

Another coalition member, the ACT party, also seeks to redefine the conditions of the document founded for New Zealand, the waitangi treaty, which was I met fierce opposition.