Australian politician hits back at Luxon's ‘simple’ comments

Thursday, 8 August 2024

The Prime Minister may have ruffled feathers across the ditch today saying when he talked to Australians it was best to 'keep things simple'

An Australian politician says he knew the word Aotearoa from a Split Enz song.

This comes after te reo Māori words were removed from a Matariki invite, with Christopher Luxon calling Australians “simple” people.

Paul Goldsmith approved the removal of the words as he didn’t think minister Tony Burke would understand them.

An Australian politician has hit back at New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon after he made a comment about Australians being “simple” people.

Luxon said “in my dealings with Australians it always pays to be incredibly simple” when talking about the removal of te reo from an official Matariki invite to an Australian minister.

The Māori words removed included “tēnā koe”, “nāku noa, nā”, and Aotearoa.

Paul Goldsmith, who approved the removal of te reo from the letter, said he didn’t think the minister concerned would know what Aotearoa meant.

Now, the minister the invite was meant for, Immigration Minister Tony Burke, has responded, saying he learnt the word Aotearoa from a Split Enz song as a child.

Australian PM Anthony Albanese and New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon.

“I learnt the word [Aotearoa] in 1982 thanks to Split Enz including a reference in the lyrics, Six Months in a Leaky Boat,” Burke said on Thursday.

The song reached number 2 in the Australian charts and contained the lyrics “Aotearoa, rugged individual / Glisten like a pearl / At the bottom of the world.”

7News reported that Burke had found the initial comment “funny”.

Goldsmith’s decision to remove te reo from the invite has been criticised by opposition parties, with Labour MP Willie Jackson calling it a “shameful act” and an “insult to Māori people”.

As reported in the Guardian, when asked about Luxon’s sledge, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, he “is a friend of mine” but that there were issues with communication, having a go at the accent of New Zealanders.

“I often think that while we both speak English, sometimes we need interpreters,” Albanese said.

“It’s the Kiwi accent. From time to time, things can be missed between us, that was the case with Chris Hipkins and Jacinda Ardern before him.

“We are great friends. Sometimes we do speak a different language.”