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New Zealand coalition votes to make English an official language as critics decry ‘cynical’ bill
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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That's a good point. I hadn't really thought of the reasons that minority or pre-colonial languages are made official.
I guess the use of enshrining English would be to make sure the government issues forms in it, which they probably already do. (I'm not ANZAC) On the other hand, it would likely allow the same (or a future) government to PROHIBIT publishing or accepting forms in other languages, which would tend to limit minority access to power.