{"id":18087,"date":"2026-07-31T05:40:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18087"},"modified":"2026-07-31T05:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:40:59","slug":"english-to-become-official-language-of-nz-alongside-te-reo-maori-and-sign-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18087","title":{"rendered":"English to become official language of NZ alongside Te Reo M\u0101ori and sign language"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

English will join Te Reo M\u0101ori and sign language as an official language of New Zealand, after the English Language Bill passed its third and final reading at Parliament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The bill, in the name of Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, is just two pages long, and states English “has long been a de facto official language in New Zealand, that is, widely used and accepted as an official language, but its official language status is not set out in legislation”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Once again, Goldsmith did not contribute to the debate. He has previously said the bill was not a priority, but was a coalition commitment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

New Zealand First got the bill into the coalition agreement, and speaking at the third reading, MP Casey Costello said the bill was important to the “hard-working Kiwi battlers” her party represented, and denied it was a waste of time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“It is not trivial, unnecessary, or a distraction to this House in a democracy to deliver for those who elected us to this House,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Costello said the bill provided clarity and certainty in legislation, and changed none of the existing legal protections afforded to Te Reo M\u0101ori or New Zealand sign language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Her contribution was significantly less combative than New Zealand First leader Winston Peters’ call at the first reading of the legislation in February.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Casey<\/div>
NZ First MP Casey Costello.<\/p>\n

VNP \/ Louis Collins<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Back then, Peters said the purpose of the bill was to help solve a “virtue signalling narrative,” and that New Zealand should be using English as the primary and language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Now, his colleague Costello said the purpose of the bill was providing clarity in law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“This is a practical measure. It aligns the statute book with long-standing practice, and provides a clear statement about the status of English within New Zealand’s official framework.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

‘Snowflake government’ – opposition questions the bill’s purpose<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Opposition parties have questioned the government’s priorities, given most laws are already written in English.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Green MP Tamatha Paul said the bill’s proponents were “bunch of snowflakes that hear the word Aotearoa and cry themselves to sleep,” and noted English was also not an official language of England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Let me tell you why Te Reo M\u0101ori has a protected language status, because it was beaten out of M\u0101ori systematically. We had to march our arses to Parliament, demanding that the indigenous first language of this country be recognised and not beaten out of the mouth of its native speakers.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Green<\/div>
Green MP Tamatha Paul.<\/p>\n

VNP \/ Phil Smith<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Paul has recently returned from a cross-party visit to the Welsh Senedd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“They’ve got their their beautiful indigenous language, Cymraeg, everywhere before English. And guess what? The world didn’t fall over, and the world didn’t end. People still knew where they were going. In fact, people saw it and thought, ‘wow, we’re in a country that values their indigenous language and identity,’ unlike our snowflake government that cannot handle Te Reo M\u0101ori.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Her colleague Lawrence Xu-Nan, who on Wednesday had been told by Peters to “go back to your own country,” asked what the House was protecting the English language from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“What is an example where English has not been otherwise provided for? There is no response to that. Because there is no instance that a minister can think of that will make this bill fulfil any requirement of why we need to legislate or give a legislative recognition of an official language status to English.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Speaking in Te Reo M\u0101ori, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara spoke of the “pain M\u0101ori has taken to establish its space in this country,” while English had not followed the same path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“What benefit will come from this kaupapa, from this event? Why are these hours and the time of all of these Members being used up in this way? Why are we spending all this time on this bill, when we know that English is already the main language of New Zealand?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Parliament<\/div>
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori MP Oriini Kaipara.<\/p>\n

Parliament TV<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Despite being opposed to the legislation philosophically, Labour voted it through the House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Labour MP Duncan Webb said the bill was “silly” and “meaningless”, while his colleague Camilla Belich said New Zealand First was attempting to politicise what was already a self-evident truth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“I wondered if they might want to legislate for the changing of the seasons? Or for the fact that there are sometimes four seasons in one day in Auckland, or whether they should legislate for the southerly winds to blow through Wellington?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

ACT’s Simon Court said his party supported the bill because many New Zealanders had been asking for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“When we go to a hospital, for example, and we want to find our way to the ward, find our way to an appointment, of course, the English language is important. Same if you’re an air traffic controller. Better make sure you’re using English so the pilots understand how to land, where to land the plane.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In a sign the bill was not really a National Party priority, National MPs’ contributions were short.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Carl Bates and Paulo Garcia said little more than their commending the bill to the House, Greg Fleming delivered his contribution mostly in Te Reo M\u0101ori, and Vanessa Weenink said sometimes the best medical intervention one could do was as much of nothing as possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“English was the principal language of this house before this bill. It will be our principal language after this bill. The only thing, Madam Speaker, that has really changed, is that we’ve spent several hours speaking in English about it,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

English will join Te Reo M\u0101ori and sign language as an official language of New Zealand, after the English Language Bill passed its third and final reading at Parliament. The bill, in the name of Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, is just two pages long, and states English “has long been a de facto official language […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18089,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18087\/revisions\/18089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}