Perhaps that's the only way we can speak, those of us who aren't fluent in te reo Maori or NZ sign language. Because our lawbooks, although themselves written in English, explicitly confer that status on te reo Maori and NZ sign language and that's all. English is our national default setting and the two others languages are specified only because in their cases official status doesn't go without saying. In their attempts to soothe, officials perhaps went wrong by purring that English is "de facto" an official language. If his bill were to have any inherent sense, wouldn't it need to be presented to Parliament in either of the two (and by his account the only two) official languages - te reo or sign language?

Source: Stuff February 19, 2018 15:56 UTC