New Zealand’s passport is being redesigned to place the English words above the te reo Māori text — with the new look being rolled out at the end of 2027.
Since 2021, newly issued passports have had the words “Uruwhenua Aotearoa” printed in silver directly above “New Zealand Passport”.
Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden today confirmed the positions of the text would be swapped in future to reflect the coalition’s commitment to using English first “as it is the language most widely spoken by the New Zealand public”.
She said the redesign – which would be unveiled later this year – was being done as part of a scheduled security upgrade, ensuring no additional cost to passport-holders.
Passports with the new design would start being issued only after the existing stock of booklets had been used up.
A spokesperson for Internal Affairs told RNZ the department was working towards an “end-of-2027 release date” for the updated passport.
The ACT Party celebrated van Velden’s move on social media, saying the change would “restore English before te reo Māori – without costing taxpayers”.
The Department of Internal Affairs, in 2021, promoted the passport’s existing “unique design” as one to “be proud of” and highlighted the more prominent use of te reo Māori both on the cover and throughout the book.
The change came as part of a deliberate push by the coalition to give English primacy over te reo Māori in official communications.
New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with National stipulated that public service departments had their primary name in English and be required to communicate “primarily in English” except for entities specifically related to Māori.
It also included an as-yet-unfulfilled commitment to make English an official language of New Zealand.
On Wednesday, NZ First leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters objected to the Green Party’s use of the term “Aotearoa New Zealand” during Parliament’s Question Time.
“No such country exists,” Peters said. “The name of this country in all the documents, and the membership of the United Nations, is New Zealand.
“We are not going to have somebody unilaterally – without consultation, without consulting the New Zealand people – change this country’s name.”
Speaker Gerry Brownlee insisted Peters respond to the question in a “reasonable fashion” and pointed to his ruling earlier this year that it was not inappropriate for MPs to refer to “Aotearoa New Zealand”.
“The New Zealand Geographic Board also recognises and uses the term ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’,” Brownlee told MPs.
“It would be utterly ridiculous for this House to ban such use if the Geographic Board itself is using that.”
Returning to the issue yesterday, Peters requested Brownlee reconsider on the basis that the Geographic Board had no jurisdiction to alter the country’s name.
But Brownlee was unmoved.
He noted that the word “Aotearoa” was regularly used as a name of the country, including on New Zealand passports, which he said Peters would be familiar with — given his role as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“He would have – over some five years or more – presented the New Zealand passport at various passport stations around the world and never questioned the fact that our passport has the word Aotearoa on the front of it,” Brownlee said.
“I’d further say that through all of those years … there has been not a syllable, not a sound, not a mutter, not a murmur, no condemnation whatsoever from a government he was part of.
“That is the end of the matter.”