“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.

  • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    64
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 months ago

    Peters, who is Māori, opposes initiatives intended to advance Māori people and language.

    The dumbing down of politicians is a world-wide phenomenon.

    • wewbull@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      27
      ·
      10 months ago

      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.

        • wewbull@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          11
          ·
          10 months ago

          …because it is the same argument. It’s equity Vs equality.

      • Lumidaub@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        And that means the Maori name for the country shouldn’t be used? Something’s backwards here.

        • wewbull@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          10 months ago

          I was only responding to that single quote from the article. Not the overall topic.

          Arguing about names is pointless.

          • Lumidaub@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            13
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            10 months ago

            And what you said about him seems to be easily disproven by the article.