Key points:
- Minister Paul Goldsmith had te reo greetings removed from a Matariki invite to an Australian Minister
- PM Christopher Luxon said it paid to be “incredibly simple” when dealing with Australians.
- Australian PM responded that the Kiwi accent sometimes required interpreters.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has responded to Christopher Luxon’s comment that it “pays to be incredibly simple and clear” when dealing with Australians.
The New Zealand Prime Minister made the comment yesterday in Parliament in a debate about Arts Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith’s decision to remove some te reo Māori – including the greeting ‘tēnā koe’ – from an official invite to Matariki this year.
Luxon said the invitation was to an Australian and “it always pays to be incredibly simple and clear – and use English” when dealing with our trans-Tasman cousins.
Today, Albanese said while he and Luxon both spoke English “sometimes we need interpreters with the Kiwi accent”.
Anthony Albanese said sometimes an interpreter is needed for the Kiwi accent. (Source: 1News)
“From time to time things can be missed between us and that was the case with PM Hipkins and Ardern before him.
“We’re great friends and we’re great mates, sometimes though we do speak a different language and that’s when we both think we’re speaking English.”
Today Luxon was asked about the comment by a New Zealand-based Australian journalist who requested Luxon make the answer “clear” given his nationality.
Luxon said “at least the Australians have maintained their sense of humour”.
“I worked in Australia for five years, my son was born there, my daughter works there, I love Australia and it’s great that we can poke fun at each other and I think they have a great sense of humour as well.”
Upon hearing Albanese’s comments, Luxon laughed and said “look, I’d just say: ‘tēnā koutou katoa'”.
The phrase means “greetings to everyone”.
Goldsmith’s decision to remove three instances of te reo Māori from the Matariki invite – intended for his Australian counterpart Tony Burke – was the focus of some debate in Parliament yesterday, after it was revealed by 1News. One word removed was Aotearoa.
Earlier this week Goldsmith said he thought the invitation – which contained other Māori words which weren’t removed – had a bit too much te reo in it for an Australian. When asked if he thought an Australian might not understand “Aotearoa”, Goldsmith said “yeah”.
But today Burke responded saying he did know the word – he’d learned it from the 1982 Split Enz hit Six Months in a Leaky Boat.
