Transport Minister Simeon Brown has moved swiftly to instruct Waka Kotahi staff to begin using their agency's English name first in communications.
A spokesperson for Brown told 1News in a statement on Monday night: "In a meeting with officials, Transport Minister Simeon Brown advised NZTA of the coalition agreement regarding the use of Māori names and to ensure they had a plan to give effect to it."
As part of its coalition agreement with New Zealand First, the new government had agreed to ensure all public service departments had their primary name in English, except for those specifically related to Māori.
1News understands the agency's senior staff have been given a presentation on the directive by chief executive Nicole Rosie.
That presentation included a segment called "Our Name" which detailed the minister's request that the agency be referred to by its English name first and Māori name second.
The agency will now be referred to as "New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi".
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was asked about the change in his post-Cabinet media conference this afternoon.
He said: "It's one of the things we've put into our plan. We'll have more to say about it in another month or so. What we're really imagining here is we just want to be able to make sure New Zealanders can navigate their government departments and agencies."
The NZTA "Our Name" presentation said the name change would be rolled out in a "cost-effective" manner moving forward.
Email signatures for senior leaders have already changed to reflect the new branding, and 1News understands external consultancy firms have been briefed on the change.
A routine traffic update email from the agency on Monday afternoon appeared to reflect the change, including a logo that deprioritised "Waka Kotahi".
The ordering of the transport agency's name was changed in August 2019, when "Waka Kotahi" became NZTA's primary name. The same change was made to the agency's logo.
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