Justice Committee faces 80 hours of submissions on Treaty Principles Bill

Hīkoi members march in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) on day four of their journey to Wellington. The protesters were rallying against the Act Party’s Treaty Principles Bill and are advocating for Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Photo / Alex Cairns

• The Justice Committee will hear 80 hours of oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill.
• The committee will split into two subcommittees to hear more submitters in February.
• The total number of submissions is being finalised, with duplicates and non-compliant entries excluded.

The Justice Committee must listen to 80 hours of oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill over the course of a month.

The committee met on Thursday to consider the bill, and confirmed the first full day of hearings will be January 27.

However, it still cannot say how many submissions it received on the Treaty Principles Bill, for which the deadline was extended after problems with the website, despite saying earlier this week it was hoped the number would be released on Thursday.

Committee members from each political party will nominate submitters to be heard in the first week.

The committee will split into two subcommittees to increase the number of people it can hear from during the time available. The subcommittees are expected to hear from submitters in February.

The first subcommittees will be made up of the following members: James Meager (chair), Tamatha Paul (deputy chair), Todd Stephenson, Ginny Andersen, Paolo Garcia and Dr Tracey McLellan. In the second: Dr Duncan Webb (chair), Jamie Arbuckle (deputy chair), Tākuta Ferris, Cameron Brewer and Rima Nakhle.

Hapai chief operating officer Jason Alexander and his team heading to Parliament to hand deliver another 10,000 Treaty of Waitangi Principle submissions in person.

The total number of submissions is still being finalised, once they are checked for duplication and it is made sure each one meets the criteria.

Any that do not meet the criteria – including duplicates, those made under only a first name, a first name and initial, initials only, or a clear and obvious pseudonym – would not be considered.

Any racist material would not be considered.

Submissions were reopened after some people experienced technical issues on the Parliament website.

Parliament confirmed there were no issues with the website during the extended submission period.

RNZ reported there were 300,000 online submissions before the initial deadline, half of which were received on the last day – easily surpassing the previous record of about 107,000 on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill in 2021.