Dear Public Service Commission,

I note that the commissioner has oversight of the plain language act

Section 3 provides that the intention of the act is "The purpose of this Act is to improve the effectiveness and accountability of public service agencies and Crown agents, and to improve the accessibility of certain documents that they make available to the public, by providing for those documents to use language that is—
(a)appropriate to the intended audience; and
(b)clear, concise, and well organised."

section 5 defines plain language as "In this Act, plain language means language that is—
(a)appropriate to the intended audience; and
(b)clear, concise, and well organised.

section 6 refers to the requirements if the document is in english but includes paragraph 3 which states " Nothing in this Act prevents or restricts a reporting agency from including te reo Māori in any relevant document."

According to official statistics 97% of the population of New Zealand do not speak maori

there appear to be various versions of Maori and many words have multiple meanings and often the meaning is extrapolated to infer a meaning (e,g, waka kotahi )

In Public documents where Maori is used the translation and/or intended meaning is seldom or ever referenced and the meaning is often unclear or ambiguous

Take Waka Kotahi for example
On the google translate it comes back as single vehicle
In the maori dictionary waka = canoe, vehicle, conveyance, spirit medium, medium
Kotahi = be one, single, alone, 1.

On the Waka Kotahi web site https://www.nzta.govt.nz/about-us/about-... it is given the meaning ‘Waka’ means ‘vessel’ and ‘kotahi’ means ‘one’They state " so our Māori name conveys the concept of ‘travelling together as one’ and embraces integration, affordability, safety, responsiveness and sustainability."

Taken literally this would mean one vehicle

Neither meaning would be obvious to any english speaker as the Statutory body Nz transport agency which according to google translate translates to
tari kawe waka o aotearoa

It can be easily seen that by using a language which does not have an official, consistent or recognised translations back to english that the use of te reo in official documents will bring about confusion and the use of it undermines the intention of the Plain Language legislation

Waka Kotahi is not defined any where as being synonomous witht he NZ transport agency and it is not surprising that so many scam emails have emerged trading on this unofficial name and causing confusion to the general public

By way of OIA please advise

1.the policy with regards the use of Te Reo Maori in documents which are intended for non maori speakers ie the general propulation of New Zealanders , to what degree can te reo be used , and is it relevant when the majority of the population do not speak the language ie it is not concise,clear or appropriate for the intended audience

2. Is there an official dictionary where non maori speakers can research the words to obtain the same meaning as intended in documentation ... what I am looking for is there an equivalent "oxford dictonary" for Maori which all users of the language use /can refere to to get the same meaning

3. The vast majority which is near 100% of the population speak english and the use of english will prevent miscommunications unless it is a place name or an article identified only as Maori, please advise why htere is a need to use Maori for such things as family, work days of the week etc wors whihc have perfectly well known and acceptable meaning of all New Zealanders

4. and why have the Government departments been given names which are not a direct translation but an assigned Maori name , why are these names not recognised officially and refered to in statute

5 is there a rule for using te Reo when there is a concise accurate and well understood English word which can be interpreted by the majority of the intended readers

6. the requirement to use foot notes or cross refences to indicated the intended interpretation of the maori words used

Yours faithfully,

Grace Haden

Dear Enquiries,
with regards to trading names Please clarify your statement "Departments are able to use trading names other than their legal name," there is no provision in law that enables a trading name to be used in place of a legal name.

this opens the door to fraud and we are already being targeted for fraud and the use of non official un defined names and some persons interpretation of a translation becomes a false name for a legl entity e.g Waka Kotahi One vessel is not a translation for New Zealand transport agency it is merely n assigned false name and undermines the rule of law.

the words waka kotahi are not a trading name and is not registerd as a trading name the same is true for other adopted names

many people are confused and get demand for payments in Maori names and get scammed

please provide the legal statutry basis on which an unregisterd trading names can be considered are legal names or even where a trade marked name is a legal name it appears that by allowing govt dept to substitute BS names for statutory entities the rule of law and the requirement fortransparency are being disregarded

There is nothing wrong with maori enhancing theirh language but this should not be at the expense of our first language English whihc we were taught in our schools

Yours sincerely,

Grace Haden

Dear Enquiries,
thank you for your response

It appears that the anonomous author of the reply has no concept of accountability to the rule of law and legal names

if this is indeed your policy then it is open to each and every new zealander to adotpt a maori name and claim it as the maori translation .

government agencies are creatures of statute and companies are registerd with a legal name . we each have a legal name on our birth certificate

Trading names are not and have never been legal names . each government agency has an obligation to minimise the potential for fraud and using only legal names is in the interest of the public and accountability to the rule of law

I will be taking this matter to the ombudsman as it appears that the public service commission has no concept of the definition of plain language there is probably not one person in New Zealand who speaks only maori ( except by choice ) , we were all taught English in school and it is the language which we all speak not pigeon english .

You state "departments are able to use a trading name other than
their legal name" could you please by way of oia advise of the statutory basis for this statemnt As it was writen by an anonomous person with no accountability it appears that it is a totally BS statement as much as many of the so called translations are fictional as well e.g. how can waka Kotahi posibbly translate to the new zealand transport agency One vehicle is the translation I have one vehicle I must be the the NZ transport agency then .

The Public service has an obligation to comply with the rule of law .

The New Zealand parliament which makes our laws was set up in 1852 "New Zealand Constitution Act 1852" there is no refence to Aotearoa , this became an adopted name after was used in an anthem in 1878 by an irish man who arrived in New Zealand in 1869 .pre-European era, Māori did not have one name for the country as a whole

there appears to be no legislative definition or official translation that supports Aotearoa as the Maori name for New Zealand please provide the legislative evidence on which you rely which allows for the subsitution of a legal name for a trading name either registerd or un registerd based on an allegation that it is a " maori name "

Yours sincerely,

Grace Haden