WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The New Zealand government’s removal of basic Māori phrases meaning “hello” and “New Zealand” from a Māori invitation to an Australian official for New Year’s celebrations was not an insult to the indigenous language, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Wednesday, apparently joking that it rather reflected the “incredibly simple” language required when speaking to Australians.
Luxon defended the MP who ordered the removal of Māori words from an invitation to Australia’s arts minister in an attempt to rebuff criticism that his government was anti-Māori for seeking to reverse policies that favoured indigenous peoples and languages.
The Prime Minister appeared to be indulging in a popular pastime among New Zealanders, who have a friendly rivalry with their nearest neighbour: calling Australians stupid.
“When dealing with Australians, it always pays to be incredibly simple and clear and to use English,” said Luxon, referring to the invitation to Tony Burke.
There are precedents for retorts between politicians across the Tasman Sea. The most famous example is New Zealand politician Rob Muldoon, who quipped in the 1980s that New Zealanders emigrating to Australia would “raise the IQ of both countries”.
On Thursday, a smiling Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to Luxon with a popular Australian joke – that no one can understand the New Zealand accent.
He said that interpreters were sometimes necessary, adding – perhaps diplomatically – that he too had sometimes “overlooked” things that Luxon’s predecessors had said.
“Look, we are good friends and good mates,” said the Australian head of state. “Sometimes, however, we speak a different language and then we both think we are speaking English.”
The exchange brought some relief to an otherwise tense session of New Zealand’s parliament, which has been rocked by allegations of bullying, racism and insults in recent weeks. MPs wept and the prime minister called on “all political leaders to watch their rhetoric”.
During Question Time, Luxon was asked by Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins about a number of inflammatory remarks he said were made by MPs recently.
Among them, according to documents published by 1News, was a report that New Zealand Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith – who signed the New Year’s invitation – had instructed officials to remove some Māori expressions from the materials.
These included “tēnā koe” – a formal way of saying hello that New Zealand children learn in their first year of primary school – and “Aotearoa”, a common Māori name for New Zealand.
“I just didn’t think there was a need for much te reo,” Goldsmith told 1News, using a phrase that refers to the Māori language, an official language of New Zealand. The language was once on the brink of extinction, but activists provoked a revival over several decades, and common Māori words or phrases are now in everyday use by all New Zealanders.
The same movement prompted a revival of Matarikithe Māori New Year, which was introduced as a national holiday in 2020.
Since taking office following the 2023 election, Luxon’s coalition government has sparked heated public debates about racial issues, one of which was the return to English names for government agencies, many of which had adopted Māori names in recent years.
Another reason was the termination of initiatives that prioritise Māori, who lag behind other New Zealanders in most health, economic and justice statistics.
This week, demonstrators gathered outside Parliament in the capital, Wellington, to protest against the government’s plans to remove a clause in the Child Protection System Act that requires children to be recognized as Māori.
A spokesman for Burke, the Australian recipient of the controversial invitation, told the Associated Press on Thursday that he had known the meaning of the word “Aotearoa” since 1982, when it was mentioned in the lyrics of a popular song by New Zealand band Split Enz.
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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk contributed from Melbourne, Australia.
