Nats chided over te reo on signs stance

WELLINGTON: The Māori Party coleader says the National Party should go back to school if it thinks including te reo Māori on road signs is confusing.

At a transport meeting in Bay of Plenty on Friday, National’s spokesman Simeon Brown said introducing the language to road signs would make them ‘‘more confusing’’ and they ‘‘should all be English’’.

Last Monday, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said its He Tohu Huarahi Māori Bilingual Traffic Signs programme was going out for public consultation.

If successful, the programme would include te reo Māori on motorway and expressway signs, destination signs, public and active transport signs, walking and cycling signs, and general advisory and warning signs.

Te Pāti Māori coleader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said having the language included on road signs would help those learning te reo.

‘‘This is an environment where there’s more non-Māori learning reo than we ever had in the history of Aotearoa. It’s important that we embrace our nationhood, including our indigenous people and our language.

‘‘We spent a long time trying to make sure we don’t lose our language, so having our culture in our roads is not just about helping those who are fluent Māori speakers, but so those who are in our education system learning reo can see it reflected around our environment.’’

Mr Brown should go back to school if he thought te reo Māori on road signs was confusing, she said.

‘‘It’s never too hard to understand the official languages of Aotearoa, whether it will be making an effort to understand te reo or sign language, for example.

‘‘These are all a critical part of our nation and if he [Simeon Brown] needs to go back to school or take some time off Parliament to be able to understand our language so be it.’’

There had been Māori traffic signs, Māori names, in this nation for a very long time, she said.

‘‘I’m not so sure why he [Simeon Brown] is so confused now.’’

The Te Pāti Māori coleader said Mr Brown’s comments were separatist.

‘‘I think it’s a real ignorant alarmous way to be politicking.

‘‘Twenty percent of our population is Māori. If we see a large [political] party basically trying to ignore 20% of this population, then can we expect them to do that to the rest of our multiculture, diversity and languages that we see coming forward in Aotearoa?’’

Most New Zealanders would enjoy seeing multilingual road signs, she said.

‘‘I think we are a mature and sophisticated country and generally, most of us, actually really enjoy not only seeing our indigenous language but also other languages.

Not having bilingual signs was ‘‘an attempt to take us backwards that I don’t think many are going to tolerate’’.

Mr Brown said the NZTA should be filling potholes instead of looking into including te reo Māori in road signage around the country.

‘‘NZTA should be focusing primarily in fixing the pot holes on our roads and they shouldn’t be distracted by changing signage up and down our country.

‘‘Most New Zealanders want to see our roads fixed — it’s their No 1 priority.’’

National was open to bilingual information, but only when it came to places names signage, he said.