PM denies his taxpayer-funded te reo Māori lessons are hypocritical

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says it's not hypocritical for him to have taken taxpayer-funded te reo Māori lessons, despite criticising bonuses given to some public servants for becoming proficient in the language.

Opposition leader Chris Hipkins said today Luxon's lessons were "absolute hypocrisy".

Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nicola Willis criticised bonuses for workers proficient in te reo, saying they should be culled "in circumstances where they're not relevant".

Speaking at his post-Cabinet media conference, Luxon said today he believed learning the language was part of the skills required in being a party leader. He explained the money came out of a "finite budget" he had as opposition leader in Parliament.

"I took a limited leaders' budget — which is available to me to spend on all sorts of things, whether it's staff or other things — and I chose to spend a proportion of that actually on upskilling my te reo skills," he said.

"Now I'm not saying my upskilling has been fantastically successful because I've struggled with it and I'll continue to work at that."

The PM said he believed his situation was "very different" from what he had criticised because it was "professional development" as opposed to "putting bonuses on top of fixed remuneration for people who may not even need those skills to do their job".

Luxon added: "I think [the lessons] would make me a better prime minister, or a better leader of the opposition by actually doing that.

"Using those funds for those purposes, I think was a good use of that investment and I would encourage, frankly, anyone to invest in their professional development here in Parliament — whether it's other party political leaders or MPs — if it helps them represent more New Zealanders and to be politicians for all New Zealanders. That's important."

When asked, the PM said he believed the taxpayer received good value for money from subsidising his lessons, even though he had found learning tricky.

"I found it really difficult and I think Chris Hipkins said something similar. When you're learning later in life, it's actually really difficult and really challenging," he said.

"It can be intimidating, to be honest with you, trying to learn a new language from scratch at an older age. For me, it is very important to keep working at it and I plan to do that in the New Year as well."

In early December, Luxon was critical of public money going to te reo Māori lessons when questioned about his Government's stance on reviewing proficiency bonuses for public servants.

"People are completely free to learn te reo themselves, that's what happens out there in the real world — out there in corporate life, or in any other community life across New Zealand," he said, according to RNZ.

"I've got a number of MPs for example that have made a big effort to learn te reo over the last five years and they've driven that learning themselves because they want to do it."

The party leader was then asked whether his MPs paid for their own lessons, or whether their learning was subsidised by the taxpayer.

Luxon responded: "In the real world, outside of Wellington and outside the bubble of Parliament, people who want to learn te reo or want to learn any other education actually pay for it themselves. It's quite normal."

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins waded into Luxon's admission this afternoon, calling it "absolute hypocrisy".

"Te reo Māori is more than an official language, it's a national treasure. I celebrate any Kiwis taking the opportunity to learn te reo. As a government, we worked hard to extend that opportunity to as many people as possible," he said.

"Christopher Luxon should be commended for learning Māori, but it's absolute hypocrisy for his government to then set about cancelling the taxpayer subsidies he used to do so, thus denying others that same opportunity.

"Unfortunately, that's a pattern we've come to expect from Christopher Luxon. It's a lot like claiming a subsidy for his new Tesla then cancelling the scheme for others."

Taxpayers Union campaigns manager Connor Molloy suggested the PM should return the money.

"Prime Minister Luxon has clearly been caught out saying one thing but doing another. He should do the right thing and pay the money back," he said in a tweet.

"Taking taxpayer money for te reo lessons while criticising public servants for doing the same undermines the credibility of the Government who proclaims to be focused on reducing wasteful spending."

Earlier this morning, after repeated requests, the prime minister's office confirmed taxpayers paid for Luxon's own classes using a budget offered to the leader of the opposition.

"As leader of the opposition and a potential prime minister at the time, developing better skills in te reo was highly relevant to his role," the spokesman said.

Luxon announced in January last year he was beginning one-on-one tuition with an unnamed high-profile teacher.

"I don't want to embarrass them," he said in May last year, "but [it's] someone who is really well respected and who has been very helpful to a number of other people."

Additional reporting by AAP