{"id":311926,"date":"2026-03-04T03:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/311926\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T03:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:20:09","slug":"new-zealand-coalition-votes-to-make-english-an-official-language-as-critics-slam-cynical-bill-new-zealand-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/311926\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand coalition votes to make English an official language as critics slam \u2018cynical\u2019 bill | New Zealand politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill to recognise English as an official language of New Zealand<\/a> has cleared its first hurdle in parliament amid ridicule from opposition parties and linguists who say it is \u201cunnecessary\u201d and \u201ccynical\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bill seeks to give English, which is spoken by 95% of the country, the same official status as te reo M\u0101ori<\/a> (M\u0101ori language) and New Zealand sign language. The bill said the status and use of the existing official languages would not be affected.<\/p>\n

Its introduction forms part of the coalition deal between the minor populist New Zealand First party and centre-right National party.<\/p>\n

On 3 March, the coalition, which also includes the minor Act party, voted in favour of the bill at the first reading, allowing it to move to select committee stage for public consultation and further readings in parliament. The timing is not clear but the bill has widespread support within the government and is likely to become law.<\/p>\n

During the debate, New Zealand First\u2019s leader and foreign affairs minister, Winston Peters<\/a>, said English had never been deemed official and the bill would \u201ccorrect that anomaly\u201d.<\/p>\n

He argued the use of M\u0101ori in public services was causing confusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill won\u2019t solve the push of this virtue signalling narrative completely,\u201d Peters said. \u201cBut it is the first step towards ensuring logic and common sense prevails when the vast majority of New Zealanders communicate in English, and understand English, in a country that should use English as its primary and official language.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters \u2013 who is M\u0101ori \u2013 has long opposed affirmative initiatives<\/a> intended to advance M\u0101ori and criticised the use of M\u0101ori names for government departments<\/a>. In 2025, a row erupted in parliament<\/a> after Peters questioned why MPs were referring to New Zealand by its M\u0101ori name, Aotearoa, despite it being widely used<\/a>, including on currency and passports.<\/p>\n

The National Party has said the legislation is not a priority, but they would support it as part of their coalition agreement, and MPs from National and Act spoke in its favour.<\/p>\n

Act\u2019s Simon Court said it did not have to be a \u201cculture war issue\u201d, while National\u2019s Rima Nakhle said making English official was \u201cnot the end of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the proposal has garnered little support outside the coalition.<\/p>\n

In advice to the government, ministry of justice officials recommended that lawmakers should not pass the bill, as there was \u201cno evidence to support concerns about the use or status of English as an official language\u201d.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori and New Zealand sign language had become official to protect the status of linguistic minorities, justice officials said, and recognising English in the same way would \u201cnot change its status as the default language\u201d.<\/p>\n

In New Zealand a government car shows, in English and te reo M\u0101ori, that it belongs to the Department of Conservation
Photograph: Marion Kaplan\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Very few English-speaking countries had made English an official language, the officials said, and where they had, it generally coincided with protecting another language \u2013 for example in Canada, where law established both French and English are to be used official contexts.<\/p>\n

The bill has prompted backlash from opposition parties and language experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is scaremongering, it is cynical, and frankly we can do without it in this country,\u201d Labour MP Kieran McAnulty said during the first reading.<\/p>\n

Green Party co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick noted English was \u201cnot under threat\u201d. English was \u201cliterally beaten\u201d into people, Swarbrick said, referring to the Native Schools Act 1867, which resulted in children being punished for speaking M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a bill which is an answer to a problem that does not exist,\u201d she said. \u201cIn plain English, for all members of this government, this bill is bullshit, and you know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharon Harvey, associate professor specialising in educational linguistics at the Auckland University of Technology, told the Guardian the bill was \u201cvexatious\u201d and \u201cunnecessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s proponents were playing to a section of society who were uncomfortable with the visibility of M\u0101ori language and believed in the \u201cspurious\u201d argument it was diminishing the importance of English, Harvey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready, this government had proven to be quite strong on being proponents of English first, or English only, in some spaces,\u201d Harvey said, pointing to the government\u2019s policies reducing the visibility of M<\/a>\u0101<\/a>ori<\/a> in public services and removal of <\/a>M<\/a>\u0101<\/a>ori<\/a> words from some books<\/a> for schoolchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder if we have this kind of legislation, whether it will give certain governments more encouragement to reduce the importance of other languages in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bill to recognise English as an official language of New Zealand has cleared its first hurdle in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-311926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}