PM Jacinda Ardern outlines the plans to make Te Reo Maori available to all school children. Video / Marty Melville
Making "Aotearoa" an official name for New Zealand does not find favour with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, nor National Party leader Simon Bridges.
Ardern said there were increasing references to Aotearoa and she expected that to continue.
When asked if she wanted Aotearoa made official she avoided answering and instead noted its growing use, including at Parliament.
"Our hope and our goal is that by 2040 we have a million New Zealanders who are speaking Māori so I think that will become a part of the way we refer to ourselves," she told reporters at Panguru in Hokianga where she attended the unveiling of a statue of Dame Whina Cooper.
Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy is one who often refers to Aotearoa New Zealand in speeches.
"Aotearoa New Zealand is quite good because it acknowledges that there are two partners to the treaty [of Waitangi," she told Newshub while visiting Waitangi.
Dame Naida Glavish supported an official name change to Aotearoa.
"It was Aotearoa before we got a foreign sailor coming in here. Why should we have to go through the trials and tribulations to be who we are in our own country?" she told the network.
Ardern was also non-committal when asked about flying the tino rangatiratanga flag every day of the year at Parliament.
"These are not decisions I make alone, nor off the cuff," she said.
"But I think it is right that we see the flag acknowledged on Waitangi Day."
The statue of Dame Whina Cooper and granddaughter Irenee unveiled today at Panguru, with a tino rangatiratanga flag flying. Photo / Peter De Graaf
Former Prime Minister Sir John Key agreed to a Māori Party request to fly the flag on Waitangi Day, a particular project of Mana Movement leader Hone Harawira when he was once a Māori Party MP.
Speaking in Havelock North, Bridges said using Aotearoa did not need to become an official name.
"I think many New Zealanders, possibly even a majority now, talk about Aotearoa New Zealand and I don't think anyone would quibble with that as being anything other than an evolution and part of what we sing [in the national anthem]."
There would always be New Zealanders who wanted something different.
"They want this, they want that. One prominent New Zealander a wee while back wanted to change the flag," he said referring to Sir John's referendum to change the flag.
As for the tino rangatiratanga flag becoming an official flag, he said : "For most people, we have one official flag; it is the New Zealand flag and that's the way it should be."
