38478 (2025). Hūhana Lyndon to the Minister for Land Information

38478 (2025). Hūhana Lyndon to the Minister for Land Information: How many successful and declined applications to change an official geographic name to an original Māori name, if any, were made to the New Zealand Geographic Board between November 1 2023 and 01 July 2025, and how does this compare to the three prior terms of Parliament?

Hon Chris Penk: Between 1 November 2023 and 1 July 2025 there were 0 successful and 0 declined applications to change an official geographic name to an original Māori name. For the 53rd Parliamentary term there were 2 successful and 1 declined applications. For the 52nd Parliamentary term there were 6 successful and 0 declined applications. For the 51st Parliamentary term there were 0 successful and 0 declined applications. The response does not include proposals for changing unofficial geographic names, spelling corrections, standardising orthography, or Treaty proposal names, which are decided by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. The figures do not distinguish between decisions made by the Board or by the Minister.