March 10, 2016
Government departments responsible for survival of te reo Maori.
Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox says the new Te Reo Maori Bill should put pressure on mainstream government departments to do more to revitalise the Maori language.
The Bill was reported back to the house with substantial changes that mean the Maori Language Commission Te Taura Whiri remains a government entity, although its responsibility for funding community language revitalisation efforts goes to the new iwi-driven board Te Matawai.
Ms Fox says once the board is passed, efforts can be made to increase the budgets of Maori radio and Maori Television.
Te Taura Whiri wll have a new focus on policy as well as monitoring and encouraging other government agencies.
"For each of those departments, they have responsibility, to maintain the reo across their individual departments, not just education but in justice, in health in all of those areas. The reo is a taonga for all New Zealand and those other government departments need to take up the responsibility, of the survival of the language in their areas and have the budget to do so," says Marama Fox.
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