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Notes -
I've been waiting for the details to be finalised but we have a new government here in New Zealand, with the required CW controversy.
The first piece is the new government directing departments to prefer english in communications over the pidgin that had formed over the last government. This one is getting less coverage in the international media.
The second big controversy that made it to international media was reversing the previous government's lifetime ban on tobacco for anyone born after 2009. Weirdly, the usual weed legaliser types were in favour of the ban.
Link to full agreement: https://www.national.org.nz/national_act_and_new_zealand_first_to_deliver_for_all_new_zealanders
By pidgin do they mean the annoying tendency of the NZ government to sprinkle in Maori words in press releases?
Yes, though many government departments and place names have been translated into Te Reo as well, with often the Te Reo name taking priority over the English one.
It seems like a pretty spectacularly bad policy, one seemly optimized for divisiveness.
Very cringe that the official subreddit is named Aotearoa rather than just New Zealand. On the other hand, I suppose it’s an interesting form of accepted cultural appropriation, whites are encouraged to use the Maori terms and the white rugby players do the Haka, whereas in other Anglo settler colonies like the US or Canada or even Australia whites putting on Indian chief hats and LARPing Navajo rituals has gradually become less socially acceptable, at least in the PMC.
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