Gerry Brownlee shuts down concerns about use of ‘Aotearoa’, Winston Peters says he’s ‘wrong’

Speaker Gerry Brownlee says he doesn’t want to hear any more concerns about the use of “Aotearoa” in the House as MPs are able to use any of New Zealand’s three official languages.

But New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who raised concerns about its use last month, told the Herald the Speaker was “wrong”. He said he disagreed with the Speaker about using “Aotearoa”, as he said that wasn’t New Zealand’s Māori name, and what the country is called shouldn’t be up to “temporarily empowered politicians all the way to the Speaker”.

Peters was frustrated in February after the Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March mentioned “Aotearoa” in a question in Parliament. He asked why someone “who applied to come to this country in 2006 [is] allowed to ask a question of this Parliament to change this country’s name without the referendum and sanction of the New Zealand people”.

Brownlee at the time said it might be “helpful” to refer to “Aotearoa New Zealand” but made it clear that Parliament’s rules allow someone to address the House in either te reo or English.

“The issue around the geographic naming of New Zealand is a slightly different thing, and I’ll take some time to think about that and come back to the House,” he said at the time.

Brownlee ruled on the matter on Tuesday – the first day back at Parliament since Peters raised his concerns – and said he had considered the approach taken by the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa.

“Though this is not at all binding on the House, which does enjoy unfettered freedom of speech. The official name of New Zealand may only be altered by legislation,” he said.

However, he said that “Aotearoa” was “regularly used” as a name for the country, “including by the geographic board itself in its own name and in the title of the legislation that created it”.

“It appears on our passports and it appears on our currency. I pointed out several times that Standing Order 109 says that members may address the Speaker in English, te reo Māori or New Zealand Sign Language. That really is the end of the matter.”

He said it wasn’t for the Speaker to arbitrate when individual words in those languages could be used. MPs could speak in any of those three languages at any time, Brownlee added.

“If other members 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.”

Speaker Gerry Brownlee. NZME phorograph by Mark Mitchell

But speaking outside the House afterwards, Peters told the Herald the Speaker was “wrong”.

“I’ll tell you why he’s wrong. This matter has never gone to the people of this country. It’s never got the people’s consent. There’s no mandate. There’s no authority,” he said.

Peters didn’t have an issue with MPs using te reo but said: “I disagree with [the Speaker] in the context of the name of this country.” He submitted Aotearoa wasn’t the Māori name for New Zealand.

Peters said his party would “ensure the New Zealand people have a say on this matter and not temporarily empowered politicians all the way to the Speaker”.

Aotearoa is commonly used by government departments, in official documents and in the Māori version of the national anthem in reference to New Zealand. According to several historians and law experts, the origins of the word are murky, with “Nu Tireni” being used in early documents and “Aotearoa” appearing in 1855 in writing by Sir George Grey.

“The precise origin of the composite term ‘Aotearoa’ is not known,” University of Waikato experts wrote in 2021. “But if we translate ‘Ao’ as world, ‘tea’ as bright or white and ‘roa’ as long, we have the common translation of ‘long bright world’ or ‘long white cloud’.”

Peters said if MPs continue to use “Aotearoa” in questions to him, “they are not going to get an answer”.

New Zealand First’s Shane Jones previously criticised Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris for not apologising in English after a finding of contempt by a powerful Parliament committee.

“An unwillingness to offer an apology in English shows contempt for the vast majority of the New Zealand members of the public who pay his salary,” said Jones.

Ferris said it wasn’t disrespectful to apologise in Māori.

“If deeply, truly, this whare believes an apology in te reo Māori may not be enough, I can guarantee you, my apology in te reo Māori means more than my apology in English,” he said.

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.