A bill has been introduced to make English an official language of New Zealand.

Despite being the country's most-spoken language, it is not an official language by law.

The bill provoked ridicule in Parliament from the opposition, but was staunchly defended by Winston Peters.

AUT Associate Professor of Linguistics Sharon Harvey says that language laws exist to protect languages that aren't as widely used, and English doesn't fall in to this category. 

"If we look at like jurisdictions like Australia, federal level of the US and the UK, those jurisdictions don't have English as an official language and don't see any need to."

LISTEN ABOVE

A bill has been introduced to make English an official language of New Zealand.
Despite being the country's most-spoken language, it is not an official language by law.
The bill provoked ridicule in Parliament from the opposition, but was staunchly defended by Winston Peters.
AUT Associate Professor of Linguistics Sharon Harvey says that language laws exist to protect languages that aren't as widely used, and English doesn't fall in to this category.&nbsp;
"If we look at like jurisdictions like Australia, federal level of the US and the UK, those jurisdictions don't have English as an official language and don't see any need to."
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Sharon Harvey: AUT Associate Professor of Linguistics discusses debate around making English an official language

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/f354e429-bd43-4b85-bcd9-b3f70054f1e7/transcript