More than 300,000 submissions on Treaty Principles Bill as deadline gets extended

Thursday, 9 January 2025

Crowds spilled out around Parliament as a hikoi protesting David Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill reached Wellington, with thousands of people making their voices heard loud and clear. Jenna Lynch reports.

More than 300,000 submissions have been made on the the Treaty Principles Bill – thought to be the highest number ever – while the Justice Committee has decided to extend the deadline after website issues sparked concerns some were unable to submit.

The initial deadline closed at midnight on Tuesday.

Initial estimates show more than 300,000 submissions were made online through the Parliament website submission portal, with about half arriving on the last day ‒ causing website issues, Justice Committee chairperson James Meager said.

Dr David Wilson, Clerk of the House of Representatives, said the number of submissions appeared to be the highest on record. The previous record for submissions was just over 100,000 on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill in 2021.

“Although this number is expected to change as staff work through processing the submissions, this appears to be the highest total ever received,” Wilson said.

The committee met on Thursday morning to discuss the bill following requests to extend the deadline as submitters struggled to get their submission through online.

The meeting went for just over two hours, Meager said. The committee agreed to re-open submissions from 1pm on Thursday to 1pm Tuesday, January 14.

“People who were unable to submit previously will have the opportunity to submit online over the next few days.”

The Justice Committee has decided to re-open submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill from 1pm today to 1pm on Tuesday, January 14, National MP James Meager says. (File photo)

For those who emailed a submission to the committee email address between Monday and Thursday morning, Meager said they would be accepted because the website was down, provided it met all the other conditions for submissions.

ACT leader David Seymour, the architect of the Treaty Principles Bill, said it was the last chance to “make your voice heard on the bill which would deliver equality before the law for all Kiwis”.

He encouraged people to read the bill, which aims to hold a referendum on changing how the Treaty is applied across Government and law through a rewrite of the “Treaty principles”, and to make a submission “for what they believe is right”.

On Wednesday, Te Pāti Māori, the Green Party and the Labour Party called for an extension to the deadline.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pāti Māori, said she was copied into more than 500 emails to the committee with their submissions and requesting an extension, late into Tuesday evening, because they were unable to submit through the website.

More than 300,000 submissions were made online alone when submissions initially closed at midnight on Tuesday. (File photo)

Te Pāti Māori staff were busy trying to get as many physical copies printed, picked up and dropped off to Parliament before the 5pm deadline for physical copies on Wednesday.

Others, including Dr Dean Knight, a law professor at Victoria University of Wellington, made submissions in a physical copy after being unable to submit online.

Knight spent two hours on Tuesday night, unsuccessfully, trying to submit it online.

He was confident the committee would extend the submissions. “It’s utterly inconceivable that they wouldn't, given that the inability for people to submit was of their creation – of Parliament's fault.“

Hāpai Te Hauora, Māori public health, made 10,596 submissions online before delivering 10,000 physical copies, carried in suitcases, to Parliament from Auckland on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Green Party said it had received reports in the weeks leading to the deadline, that people had technical difficulties with the submissions portal.

The party’s Justice Committee representative, Tamatha Paul, said the bill should have never been introduced in the first place.

“This is a complete waste of resources at a time when there are bigger fish to fry; housing insecurity, poverty, environmental decline, and a health system crumbling before our eyes,” Paul said.

“We welcome the bare minimum decision to extend the deadline but know this bill must be put in the bin altogether.”

She urged Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to “kill this bill” and uphold the Treaty now that submissions were made.

“You have now fulfilled the conditions of your poorly negotiated coalition agreement.

“Our founding agreement should never be up for negotiation by one tiny part of one side.”

Luxon reiterated his Government would not be supporting the bill past the first reading, regardless of the outcome of the submissions.