Kiritapu Allan has called out the "tokenistic" use of te reo Māori at the Department of Conservation, for which she was recently minister. A screenshot of an internal email was shared on social media from a DoC manager who said they were passing on "feedback this week from the minister's office about inclusion of te reo Māori in the material that we send over". According to the manager, the minister - at the time Allan - did not want to see te reo used apart from when there was no English equivalent, the whole document was in te reo, and in greetings and sign-offs - which must be in te reo. "I encourage te reo use but in no way will I tolerate tokenistic use of reo by govt agencies as an attempt to show govt depts are culturally competent." "DoC is committed to being a good treaty partner, including improving our use of te reo."

Source: New Zealand Herald June 14, 2022 11:15 UTC