Australia and New Zealand are locked in a battle of tongue in cheek after Māori words are removed

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The removal of basic Māori phrases meaning “hello” and “New Zealand” from a Māori lunar new year invitation to an Australian official was not a snub of the Indigenous language by New Zealand’s government, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Wednesday, seemingly joking that it instead reflected the “incredibly simple” language required when speaking to Australians. In the most famous example, a New Zealand leader, Rob Muldoon, quipped in the 1980s that New Zealanders who migrate to Australia “raise the IQ of both countries.” On Thursday, a smiling Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to Luxon with a favorite Australian joke — that no one can understand the New Zealand accent. “Sometimes though we do speak a different language and that’s when we both think we’re speaking English.” The exchange offered a diversion in an otherwise tense session of New Zealand’s Parliament, which has been roiled by accusations of bullying, racism and insults in recent weeks, with lawmakers in tears and the prime minister urging “all political leaders to watch their rhetoric.” During Question Time, Luxon was asked by opposition leader Chris Hipkins about a series of inflammatory remarks he said lawmakers had recently made. “I just didn’t think it needed a lot of te reo in it,” Goldsmith told 1News, using a phrase meaning the Māori language, an official one of New Zealand.