MPs ordered to stop complaining about use of country’s indigenous name

New Zealand’s Parliament has ruled he will not accept any more objections to the use of “Aotearoa”, the Māori name for the country, within parliamentary debates.

Member of Parliament Gerry Brownlee made the decision after a member of the legislative body tried to outlaw the term.

Mr Brownlee said: “Aotearoa is regularly used as an alternative name for New Zealand. It appears on our passports and it appears on our currency.”

The deputy prime minister, foreign minister, and leader of the New Zealand First party, a populist party, took issue with Ricardo Menéndez March of the Green Party using “Aotearoa” during a question to a government minister.

“Aotearoa”, meaning “land of the long white cloud” in te reo Māori (the Māori language), has become increasingly prominent in New Zealand. The conflict highlights the tensions that have arisen amid the growing enthusiasm for the indigenous language, and reflects the ongoing “culture war”-style friction between the country’s political parties.

“Why is someone who applied to live in this country back in 2006 being allowed to put a question to parliament that could change the name of our country without a referendum and the consent of the New Zealand people?” Mr Peters asked Mr Brownlee.

Mr Menéndez March, who hails from Mexico, holds New Zealand citizenship, a prerequisite for all lawmakers in the country.

Mr Peters asked Mr Brownlee to rule out the use of the term “Aotearoa” in Parliament. On Tuesday, Mr Brownlee said MPs were already allowed to use any of New Zealand’s three official languages to address Parliament – English, te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.

“That’s as far as it goes,” he said.

Mr Brownlee had previously asked Mr Menéndez March to consider using the phrase “Aotearoa New Zealand” to refer to the country, “to help those who mightn’t understand the term”, but said he wouldn’t be insisting on it.

“Fair dinkum, if other members don’t like certain words, they don’t have to use ’em,” Mr Brownlee said.

“It’s not about the order, and I don’t anticipate any further points of order being raised about it.”

Mr Peters told reporters that Mr Brownlee was “wrong” and that he wouldn’t answer questions where New Zealand was referred to as Aotearoa. Mr Menéndez March didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Other politicians refer to New Zealand as Aotearoa, but this isn’t the first time Mr Peters and his party have focused on Mr Menéndez March.

In January, the Green Party complained to the Prime Minister and Mr Brownlee after Mr Peters’ deputy, Shane Jones, gave him a hard time during a Parliamentary debate with a comment about Mexicans.

Meanwhile, Mr Peters told two other Green Party lawmakers who had moved to New Zealand that they should “show some gratitude” to the country.

Mr Menéndez March labelled the comments as “openly racist and xenophobic”.

MP Peters, New Zealand’s longest-serving current politician, has caused a stir with his populist views and comments on Asian immigration.

He is a Māori himself, but has spoken out against initiatives aimed at boosting Māori language and culture.

Former politician Peter Dunne said in February that Mr Peters’s position was more about boosting his image as a populist rather than genuinely caring about the language issue itself.

It was forecasted to completely disappear by the 21st century.

Today, words like “Aotearoa” are becoming part of everyday chatter, even among people who aren’t fluent in Māori. Some are pushing for the country’s name to be officially changed, which was originally given by a Dutch mapmaker.

Critics argue that Māori did not have a collective name for all of New Zealand prior to colonisation, with “Aotearoa” originally referring only to the North Island.

The official name of the country can only be altered through legislation.

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