A proposal by Waka Kotahi and Te Mātāwai to install more than 90 bilingual traffic signs appears to be the target of a large campaign by a right-wing lobby group.
At least 25,000 submissions opposing the idea were sent to the agencies using a Hobson's Pledge email template – the same tactic the group used to oppose Māori wards on Auckland Council.
Just over 44,000 submissions were received in total during the public consultation period in May and June.
Of that number, 60 per cent of the individual submissions not using the Hobson's Pledge template supported the proposals, while 40 per cent were opposed.
Tē Mātāwai co-chair Reikura Kahi said she wasn't concerned.
"Because they come from one entity, I think we do consider them as one group and I would say a minority... so, not on the number of submission they made or the emails they sent through," she said.
"If you really look at it, they are a small part of what is Aotearoa New Zealand. The tide has changed in regard to te reo Māori in New Zealand, the learning of te reo Māori in our schools and exposure to te reo Māori."
In the small township of Ōtaki, a place considered a bilingual town, Te Wānanga o Raukawa CEO Mereana Selby said te reo Māori was already woven into the fabric of the community and bilingual signs wasn't controversial.
"With Te Wānanga o Raukawa, with two immersion kura, with four kōhanga reo we have created a generation of young people who, for them, speaking te reo is normal."
"It makes me feel really proud because it's taken a great deal of effort and foresight to get us to this point and a lot of, I guess, dreaming, but also, people who were prepared to make massive personal sacrifices over a long period of their lives to build the reo capacity."
Hobson's Pledge declined an interview with 1News, but said in a statement its key concerns are around safety, accessibility and appropriateness.
"New Zealanders often aren’t aware of the opportunities that exist for them to have their say as legislation and policy are formed. Realising this, Hobson's Pledge has developed easy-to-use tools to facilitate submissions for issues that we know our supporters are concerned about. Waka Kotahi’s introduction of bilingual signs was one such issue," it said.
"We were hearing from our supporters that most New Zealand drivers were worried about the state of the roads, but the Labour Government was focused instead on what language was on the signs."
It said the email template it created still allowed people to make edits or replace it entirely with their own words.
The lobby group used the same tactic to rally against Māori wards on Auckland Council.
More than 1200 emails were sent to councillors including Angela Dalton.
"Generally, when we get lots of emails flooding in and it has the same content, it's a targeted campaign. So I was surprised to some extent, but disappointed," she said.
"It doesn't matter which way you slice it. Pākehā have held power since the signing of the Treaty. There has never been an equal partnership, and it worries people that perhaps Māori might have more of a say. Why?"
A 2021 Waka Kotahi report said few international studies have found evidence of major safety impacts associated with bilingual signs.
"We are very behind the times in Aotearoa – behind Europe, behind a lot of other countries who are bilingual," Kahi said.
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