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

Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s prime minister is defending the removal of basic Māori phrases meaning “hello” and “New Zealand” from a lunar new year invitation to an Australian official. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says it’s not a snub of the Indigenous language by New Zealand’s government. Instead, he jokes about the intelligence of neighboring Australians. But his coalition government has prompted fraught public debates about race. In return, Australia’s leader Anthony Albanese jokes that he needed interpreters to understand the New Zealand accent at all. The Australian official in question says he already knew the Māori words removed from his invitation.