Te reo Māori ‘stop-go’ sign at Hawke’s Bay roadworks doesn’t conform to rules, minister and NZTA say

The stop/go roadworks sign in te reo Māori on Matapiro Rd, Hawke's Bay. Photo / Jack Riddell

• Transport Minister Chris Bishop says the te reo Māori road sign is not legal and unapproved by NZTA.
• The sign, reading “TAIHOA” and “HAERE”, was used at Matapiro Rd roadworks by Tūpore Infrastructure.
• The sign was replaced with traditional stop-go signage after the issue was raised.

NZ Transport Agency and the Minister of Transport have said “taihoa” to a Hawke’s Bay stop-go roadworks sign written in te reo Māori, saying the sign “does not conform” with traffic control rules.

William Chambers was driving along Matapiro Rd off the Napier-Taihape Rd on Friday, May 9, when he came across roadworks run by Tūpore Infrastructure.

Instead of the typical two-sided sign, with “GO” in white writing with a green background on one side and “STOP” with a red background on the other, Chambers saw a sign that read “TAIHOA” with a red background and “HAERE” with a green background.

When Hawke’s Bay Today visited the Matapiro Rd roadworks on Tuesday the te reo taihoa-haere sign was in use.

A Tūpore Infrastructure spokesman said the sign in question was left by a sub-contractor and inadvertently used by their on-site team.

“We are unsure of the legal compliance standing of these signs and as such, once we were made aware of the signage, we have replaced them with traditional stop-go signage,” the spokesman said late on Tuesday afternoon.

According to Te Aka Māori Dictionary, taihoa is an interjection which can mean “wait, wait a second, later, don’t ... yet”.

Haere as a verb means “to go, depart, travel, walk and continue”.

The Tūpore spokesman said no government agency had been in touch with the company about the use of the te reo Māori sign and it did not have any other te reo-only signage in its inventory.

Tūpore would “certainly consider this in the future if they were approved for use”, the spokesman said.

The sign frustrated Chambers, as it was his view that the Prime Minister and Government had given a commitment to stop the use of te reo Māori in signage around roads.

“And yet, now they’re blatantly not even bothering to include English above or below it,” he said.

Chambers said the Oxford Dictionary also had an interpretation of taihoa as meaning “to proceed carefully”.

He argued the word “taihoa” shouldn’t be used as a replacement for the word “stop” and the sign was unsafe as a result.

Chambers said most countries, whether they spoke English or not, used the word “stop” as it was internationally known.

“If a foreign tourist goes past that sign and has an accident, then the Government should be held liable,” he said.

Now, Minister of Transport Chris Bishop told Hawke’s Bay Today the te reo-only sign was in breach of the Traffic Control Device Rule.

This NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) rule ensures traffic in New Zealand is controlled by means of traffic control devices (ie road signs) that are “safe, appropriate, effective, uniform and consistently applied”.

An NZTA spokesman said te reo Māori roadworks signs were not approved for use and were not in use on its state highway network. Matapiro Rd is a Hastings District Council-controlled road.

“These signs ... are not bilingual signs and were not included in the package of 94 bilingual signs which was released for consultation in 2023 as part of He Tohu Huarahi Māori bilingual traffic signs programme,” the NZTA spokesman said.

NZTA undertook research to determine whether there were “any safety disbenefits accompanying bilingual traffic signage” and found there were no more deaths or serious injuries as a result of establishing bilingual traffic signs where these data were measured.

“Bilingual traffic signs are used safely in many countries and are considered ‘standard’ in the European Union,” he said.

In May 2023, leader of the Opposition at the time, Christopher Luxon, said he was “not opposed per se” to bilingual road signs but the priority should be given to fixing potholes, after his transport spokesman at the time, Simeon Brown, questioned the logic of bilingual signs.

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and spent the last 15 years working in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier. He reports on all stories relevant to residents of the region.