Was It THAT Difficult, Bro?

Dateline: last Wednesday.
In the NZ Parliament, the Labour Party tried to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. A majority vote would have got its bill a second

reading.
All it needed was the allied Maori Party MPs to fill out proxy voting forms in the affirmative. Was this too difficult?
Evidently - YES!!!
I could be charitable and say that an administrative error caused the "native representatives" to vote the wrong way.

Or I could simply ponder how hard it must have been to put a tick in the 'yes' box.
The error meant the bill was shot down unexpectedly, after National cast the Maori Party's three votes along with its own and that of ACT, which meant the bill was voted down 63-58.
The Maori Party now has permission of Parliament to have its three votes recounted in favour.
But the fact remains: tick 'yes' if in favour, tick 'no' if not in favour. How hard can it be?
Perhaps - and I muse aloud in a 'devil's advocate' manner - instead of spending $220million each year on promoting the maori language, we send those Maori Party MPs to a NZ kindergarten for a quick refresher in what 'yes' and 'no' mean in english...
It ain't hard!