New Zealand lawmakers told to stop complaining about use of the country's Māori name in Parliament
New Zealand lawmakers told to stop complaining about use of the country's Māori name in Parliament
The speaker of New Zealand’s parliament has told lawmakers that he will not consider further complaints about the use of the country’s Māori name, Aotearoa, in Parliament, after one made a bid to have it banned.
“Aotearoa is regularly used as a name of New Zealand,” Speaker Gerry Brownlee said in a ruling on Tuesday at Parliament in Wellington. “It appears on our passports and it appears on our currency.”
Ricardo Menéndez March, from the left-leaning Green Party, used the name Aotearoa during a question to a government minister. The composite word means “land of the long white cloud” in te reo Māori, the Māori language.
Winston Peters — who is deputy prime minister, foreign minister and leader of the populist party New Zealand First — objected in a point of order.
A flamboyant politician who is New Zealand’s longest-serving current lawmaker, Peters favors populist policies and has been decried before for remarks about Asian immigration to New Zealand. Peters, who is Māori, opposes initiatives intended to advance Māori people and language.
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Peters, who is Māori, opposes initiatives intended to advance Māori people and language.
The dumbing down of politicians is a world-wide phenomenon.
Ah the classic "self hating
JewMaori"If he's the same Maori politician I've seen speaking on such subjects before, he doesn't want Maoris to be treated with special privileges. He wants all people to be treated equally.
Seems fair enough to me.
Except they haven't been. Sounds like the same argument against affirmative action
...because it is the same argument. It's equity Vs equality.
And that means the Maori name for the country shouldn't be used? Something's backwards here.
I was only responding to that single quote from the article. Not the overall topic.
Arguing about names is pointless.
And what you said about him seems to be easily disproven by the article.