The idea of merging the various agencies responsible for promoting the Maori language has found some favour amongst them.
Both the Maori broadcasting funding authority Te Mangai Paho (TMP) and the Maori Language Commission appeared before the Maori affairs select committee.
The committee's chairman Tau Henare asked both agencies how they would feel about bringing together their work, along with that done by Te Puni Kokiri.
Commission chairwoman Erima Henare agreed with the suggestion that work to preserve the language had become too fragmented and it could be time to stop the "silo treatment" with each agency doing their own thing.
The agencies were already showing a "spirit of coming together", she said.
TMP chairwoman Jacqui Te Kani was more cautious, saying it would depend on how the new agency model was designed and whether it would work.
Another TMP official pointed out to the MPs that the Education Ministry was also responsible for large amounts of Maori language promotion and she would welcome TMP having some control over that.
The Government is currently looking at number of state sector agency mergers and restructuring with Prime Minister John Key saying for a small country New Zealand has far too many agencies, which causes fragmentation and waste.
