Don't complain e of New Zealand's Māori name, MPs told
Getty ImagesThe speaker of the house in New Zealand's parliament says he will not consider any further complaints from lawmakers over the use of the country's Māori name in proceedings.
"Aotearoa is regularly used as a name of New Zealand," Speaker Gerry Brownlee said in a ruling in Parliament on Tuesday.
His comments come after Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters asked Brownlee to bar the use of the name Aotearoa, and suggested a referendum would be needed for anyone to use it in parliament.
While New Zealand is the legal name of the country and can be changed only by law, Aotearoa, which translates to "land of the long white cloud", has long been used when referring to New Zealand in Māori.
"It [Aotearoa] appears on our ports and it appears on our currency," Brownlee said on Tuesday. The name is also used in the Māori version of New Zealand's national anthem, which is commonly heard before the English version.
"If other do not like certain words, they don't have to use them. But it's not a matter of order, and I don't expect to have further points of order raised about it," he added.
MPs are allowed to use any of the country's three official languages - English, Māori and New Zealand sign language - when speaking in Parliament.
The objection by Peters, who is Māori, arose last month, when Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March used it during a parliamentary session.
"Why is someone who applied to come to this country in 2006 allowed to ask a question of this Parliament that changes this country's name without the referendum and sanction of the New Zealand people":[]}