Impressive political line up marks first day of Treaty submissions

Monday, 27 January 2025

Treaty Princliples Bill sees record number of submissions

Submissions on ACT’s contentious Treaty Principles Bill start being heard by the Justice Committee at Parliament on Monday. The Justice Committee is expected to hear just a fraction of the more than 300,000 written submissions that were made between Monday and the end of February. It is due to report back to Parliament by the middle of the year.

Who is submitting on Monday?

The line up includes current and former MPs, political commentators, academics and political heavyweights who will speak to their submission on the Treaty Principles Bill.

At 8.15am, the bill’s sponsor, ACT leader David Seymour is up, the New Zealand Maori Council is at 9.40am, which will include Sir Edward Durie, legal expert Graeme Edgeler is up at 9.50am, academics Bronwyn Hayward is at 11.20am and Janine Hayward is at 11.50am, while economist and ex Productivity Commission chair Ganesh Nana will be on at 4.10pm and historian Vincent O’Malley is at 4.30pm.

Former MP Marilyn Waring - who crossed the floor over nuclear issues, and former Justice Minister Andrew Little will be up at 2.40pm and 3.10pm respectively.

The select committee is scheduled to hear from about 50 submitters on Monday - a daunting number for select committees but a minuscule amount of the more than 300,000 submissions on the bill.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer watches over David Seymour as he gives a press conference in Parliament. Seymour will be the first to submit on the Treaty Principles Bill on Monday.

This part of the process allows the select committee to dig deeper into certain written submissions, ask a range of questions and expect to get free and frank answers or advice back.

The schedule is subject to change. Some will appear in person in Parliament and others via zoom.

Who are they submitting to?

The select committee is made up from MPs across the House.

New Minister James Meager (Ministers are not usually part of select committees) is the chair, and has been working for months on the process. His National colleagues Cameron Brewer, Paulo Garcia and Rima Nakhle join him, along with Labour MPs Ginny Andersen, Duncan Webb and Tracey McLellan, NZ First MP Jamie Arbuckle, Te Pāti Māori’s Tākuta Ferris, ACT’s Todd Stephenson and Green Party’s Tamatha Paul.

What about the rest of the hearings?

The select committee has reached a tentative agreement on how to roll out the rest of the hearings, chair James Meager said over the weekend, and is going to party caucuses this week to consult. It will likely confirm that approach on Thursday.

Names of submitters for Thursday are starting to appear on Parliament’s website.

What happens next?

The bill has six months to go through the select committee process, however committees are able to ask the Business Committee for an extension if more time is needed. The Justice Committee’s report is due in May.

Last November the Justice Committee, already expecting to receive a large amount of submissions, laid out how it expected to run the hearing process. It will decide how it will choose which submitters can present at Parliament or via zoom this month, and plans to hold hearings during the last week of January and in February.

The select committee report goes back to Parliament after the committee considers advice on the proposal, and it can suggest changes and recommends whether the bill and any amendments are passed or not.

The bill then goes back to Parliament, where it will have its second reading. All parties except ACT have stated they will not be voting it through to a third reading. If voted down at its second reading, that means it does not become law.

The full list of Monday’s submitters can be found here - the hearings are able to be watched live.