Committee of MPs to have key role in treaty review

By AUDREY YOUNG

A special parliamentary select committee is expected to play a key part in an inquiry into the role of the Treaty of Waitangi and other constitutional issues.

The Cabinet is today set to sign off the details of the Government's treaty review in time for Prime Minister Helen Clark to officially announce it at the Labour Party conference on Saturday, eight months after her officials first started work on it.

The review will have the licence to extend beyond an inquiry into the place of the treaty in New Zealand, as originally mooted, to "other constitutional matters".

Proceedings may not be very formal in the initial phases, with encouragement of public dialogue a key feature. People to lead the debate have not yet been settled upon.

As part of the review, a special select committee is expected to be established and asked to report on New Zealand's current constitutional arrangements.

It is customary for all parties to be invited to participate in such committees, such as the one that reviewed MMP.

The public dialogue and select committee report will be reviewed by a body - which may then recommend a more formal inquiry.

The process will stretch beyond the next general election, which must be held before the end of September.

An inquiry was mooted in March following the Orewa speech of National leader Don Brash on the Treaty of Waitangi and special treatment for Maori.

Labour was shaken and mystified as to why the speech propelled National from polling obscurity to overtaking it.

But an inquiry was never a priority for the Government and is seen as a potential danger for it.

Helen Clark has been anxious to avoid an inquiry that could be interpreted as a backdoor route for republicanism or as creating a ready-made platform from which Dr Brash can mount attacks on Government policy.

The Government has been consulting the Greens, who have been the drivers for the public dialogue, and United Future, who have been pushing to have the inquiry broadened beyond the treaty to include such issues as Parliament's relationship with the judiciary.

It won tentative support from New Zealand First for a review of some treaty issues, but leader Winston Peters has lately been critical.

A constitutional inquiry was originally proposed by the justice and electoral committee as it deliberated on the Supreme Court Bill and had the support of both the Greens and United Future.

But after United Future pulled its support for the Supreme Court, the Government let the agreement sit on the table. It has now been revived.