Parliament’s Justice select committee will only be able to hear from a “small proportion” of oral submitters on the contentious Treaty Principles Bill after receiving more requests than it can accommodate.
It comes as committee members prepare to meet on Thursday to make a series of decisions about handling the more than 300,000 written submissions received on the bill before submissions closed at 1pm today.
Act Party leader David Seymour and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer both welcomed the public response but respectively argued it showed the country’s willingness to debate Te Tiriti o Waitangi’s place in New Zealand or the country’s disdain for the bill’s attempt to redefine the Treaty’s principles.
Submissions on the bill, which opened late last year, had originally been set to close last week but the deadline was extended to today after some people experienced difficulty submitting as Parliament’s website struggled to manage the unprecedented demand.
Data released by Te Pāti Māori last week claimed 343,000 online and physical submissions had been made, far outstripping the 107,000 submissions recorded on a bill concerning conversion therapy.
In a statement from Justice select committee chairman James Meager, he said he had not received an updated number of submissions since last week but noted the committee could agree to publish that information following its Thursday meeting.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer wants the select committee to re-evaluate its submission criteria. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He referred inquiries concerning the processing of submissions to the office of the Clerk of the House but he restated how any submissions that didn’t comply with the committee’s criteria would be returned.
The committee had earlier decided any submissions including racist material, swear words and abusive personal reflections on MPs would not be accepted. Meager today said duplicates and those made under only a first name, a first name and initial, initials only, or a clear and obvious pseudonym would be returned.
With some groups creating templates to make the submission process easier, Meager noted the committee would need to decide on those submissions on Thursday.
All submissions that met the criteria would be released “as soon as possible”, the statement read.
Thursday’s meeting would also likely feature decisions concerning oral submissions to the committee on the bill.
Meager said the committee had “received more requests for oral submissions than we will be able to accommodate, so only a small proportion of submitters will be able to be heard from”.
Ngarewa-Packer told the Herald her party would be encouraging the committee to reassess the criteria it had set for submissions to ensure all necessary voices were heard, including young people and those from iwi or hapū with unsettled Treaty claims.
“I put it to that select committee, it is incumbent on James to go back and test them, are the categories wide enough?”
Ngarewa-Packer, who recognised the extraordinary task facing the committee, stressed the importance of being transparent and timely in addressing submissions given the “frustration and angst” caused by Parliament’s website malfunctioning as the first submission deadline approached.
Concerned some people might have been put off from submitting because of the error, Ngarewa-Packer said she wanted an independent inquiry into the system’s failings to ensure it didn’t happen again.
Nonetheless, she said she was heartened by the “huge mobilisation” from Māori and non-Māori in response to the bill, which had also inspired tens of thousands to march on Parliament late last year.
“I don’t think the Parliamentary Service, I don’t think David Seymour, banked on how much of an interest this would create in Aotearoa ... Te Tiriti o Waitangi isn’t something to be played with.”
Seymour secured the support of National and New Zealand First for the bill during coalition negotiations following the 2023 election but that support extended only to the bill’s first reading. Both National leader Christopher Luxon and NZ First leader Winston Peters had stated they wouldn’t vote for the bill in its second reading.
Act leader David Seymour is the creator of the bill. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Seymour, the bill’s creator, told the Herald he found the record response “very encouraging” and argued it proved a national debate on the Treaty was required.
“Even people who think the bill is going nowhere have to admit it’s worth having the discussion, I suspect many of them have submitted themselves.”
As the minister responsible for the bill, Seymour was quick to state it was the committee’s role to handle submissions but he suggested hearing from a selection of people, potentially chosen by individual committee members, to inform the committee could be a useful solution.
Despite his coalition partners’ repeated statements condemning the bill, Seymour said he remained hopeful they would change their minds.
He confirmed neither Luxon nor Peters had thus far indicated to him they were going to support the bill.
The select committee was expected to report back to the House on the bill in May.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
