The introduction of an English language bill in the New Zealand parliament sparked debate on Thursday.

English has never been recognised as an official language of the country, whereas Te Reo Māori has been under the Māori Language Act 1987.

Critics of the bill note the official status of Te Reo Māori was made necessary by many decades of colonialist acts of cultural suppression aimed at the Māori people.

New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, who is of Māori heritage but grew up speaking only English and is not fluent in Te Reo Māori, has long argued English should be given official status.

Mr Peters added that the proposal was not intended in any way to reduce the official language status of Māori, Aotearoa / New Zealand's sole Indigenous language.

"This bill won't solve the push of this virtue signalling narrative completely," he said, "but it is the first step towards ensuring that logic and common sense prevail when the vast majority of New Zealanders communicate in English - and understand English - in a country that should use English as its primary and official language."

The conservative government MPs say the bill would provide clarity and certainty, and that existing legal protections afforded to Te Reo Māori would still remain.

Opposing voices from the two minority parties on the other side of the unicameral house argued the debate was "trivial", "unnecessary" and "a distraction".

Green MP Tamatha Paul, who identifies with both Ngāti Awa and Waikato Tainui iwi tribes, said the bill's proponents was little more than " a bunch of snowflakes that hear the word Aotearoa and cry themselves to sleep".

She noted, like Australia, English has only been a de facto language in New Zealand and has never been given an official language status in the United Kingdom either.

"Let me tell you why Te Reo Māori has a protected language status because it was beaten out of Māori systematically," Ms Paul said.

"We had to march our arses to parliament, demanding that the Indigenous first language of this country be recognised and not beaten out of the mouth of its native speakers."

Ms Paul has also only recently returned from a cross-party visit to the Welsh Senedd, the devolved legislature of Wales, where she believed the Welsh people gave due respect to past linguistic traditions.

"They have got their beautiful Indigenous language, Cymraeg, everywhere before English - and guess what? The world didn't fall over and the world didn't end. People still knew where they were doing," she said.

"In fact, people saw it and thought, 'wow, we're in a country that values their Indigenous language and identity', unlike our (New Zealand) snowflake government that cannot handle Te Reo Māori."

Speaking in Te Reo Māori, Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara, who identifies with Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Rangitihi tribes, spoke of the "immense pain Māori has taken to establish its space in this country" amid English being universally accepted since the British claimed Aotearoa for its own in 1840.

A language revitalisation movement from 1982 saw the introduction of the Indigenous language first through early-education institutions before Te Reo Māori followed through primary schools from 1985.

But the government recently had allegedly looked to erase the use of Te Reo Māori from early-reading pukapuka (books) to "inculcate white supremacy", according to a University of Auckland Professor of Māori Studies.

"What benefit will come from this kaupapa (purpose) from this event? Why are these hours and the time of all of these members being used in this way? Why are we spending all this time on this bill when we know that English already is the main language of New Zealand?" Ms Kaipara said in an English translation.

Despite being philosophically opposed to the government's legislation, Labour, the largest party on the opposition benches, voted in favour for the change to ensure it passed through the house.

But Labour MP Duncan Webb admitted that the bill was simply "silly" and "meaningless" because the status of English in the country was already self-evident.