Dismissed out of hand

Last week I blogged about the Petition of Anton Michael Hyman,

That the House recognise "Aotearoa" as a name of this country (New Zealand), and declare and record this.

This is an important question, which touches on our modern identity, and its something I think we should be able to have a say on. So I'm disappointed to see that the Government Administration Committee has dismissed it out of hand [PDF]. Their "reason" - that

the [New Zealand Geographic] Board has no jurisdiction to assign a name to, or alter the name of, New Zealand. Any decision to change the name of New Zealand would therefore be a matter for the House

is simply a non sequitur. The petition was addressed to the House, its asking them to do something, not the NZ Geographic Board. To ignore that and simply respond with the formula "we have no further matters to bring to the attention of the House" shows a disrespect for the issue, the petitioner, and the public.