The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, met with Pacific leaders in Auckland today, with climate change a hot topic of discussion.
Despite the pleasure in having someone of Guterres' status coming into the community, those in attendance weren't too shy to challenge their esteemed guest.
The Secretary General was asked what is being done for indigenous languages such as te reo Māori.
Latayvia Tualasea Tautai, chair of Labournesia, was blunt in her assessment of the UN's work on indigenous languages, saying, “I know that this year the United Nations is focusing on indigenous languages. I just want to know what that means for te reo Māori and our Pasifika [peoples], because if we don't get it right here in New Zealand for our Māori people, then we'll never get it right for our communities.”
Earlier this week, Guterres met with students at Auckland University of Technology in Manukau. He addressed the issue of lawmakers failing to keep up with the rapid expansion of technology and how the internet was being used more and more to promote hate speech.
"The internet is used by criminal organisations, by terrorist organisations. Hate speech moves like wildfire through these instruments and we need to be able to stop this," he says.
"In the past, when we have a problem of this kind, there would be a process of discussing an international convention and it would take four or five years for the convention to be approved. But, things are moving so quickly that by the time a convention is approved it's too late."
His comments come as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is meeting with world leaders in Paris hoping to adopt the 'Christchurch Call' and tackle the issue.