Parliament’s Justice Committee has reopened submissions on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill so more people can have their say.
Parliament first introduced the concept of the Treaty principles in legislation in the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, but did not define them.
“The Treaty principles help reconcile differences between the te reo Māori and English texts and give effect to the spirit and intent of the Treaty when applied to contemporary issues,” it says.
“They apply to Government policy and operational decisions and are used to interpret legislation, and by the Waitangi Tribunal to review proposed Crown action or inaction, policies, and legislation.
“The purpose of the Bill is to set out the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation, and require, where relevant, those principles to be used when interpreting legislation.”
The ACT Party’s Treaty Principles Bill proposes the following principles:
- Principle 1: The Government of New Zealand has full power to govern, and Parliament has full power to make laws. They do so in the best interests of everyone, and in accordance with the rule of law and the maintenance of a free and democratic society.
- Principle 2: The Crown recognises the rights that hapū and iwi had when they signed the Treaty/te Tiriti. The Crown will respect and protect those rights. Those rights differ from the rights everyone has a reasonable expectation to enjoy only when they are specified in Treaty settlements.
- Principle 3: Everyone is equal before the law and is entitled to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. Everyone is entitled to the equal enjoyment of the same fundamental human rights without discrimination.
People initially had until 11.59pm on January 7 to make a submission on the Bill, but the deadline has been extended to 1pm on January 14 due to technical issues with Parliament’s website.
The Justice Committee says its intention is to ensure everyone who tried to make a submission but was unable to will have the opportunity to do so.
Indications are the committee has received over 300,000 submissions on the Bill, although it expects this number to change as committee staff work through processing the submissions.
The previous record for submissions was just over 100,000 on the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill in 2021.
Over 150,000 submissions were lodged via the Parliament website on January 7.
The committee strongly encourages people wishing to make submissions to do so promptly and not leave it until the final hours on January 14.
Anyone who emailed a submission to treatyprinciples@parliament.govt.nz or justice@parliament.govt.nz between January 6 and 9am on January 9 will have their email submission accepted as a regular submission, provided their email references the technical issues with the website, contains a name, a submission, and meets the required conditions.
If your email submission meets that criteria, you don’t need to re-make your submission via the website portal.
Each submitter will be counted only once, even if a submitter makes multiple submissions.
Contact committee staff at treatyprinciples@parliament.govt.nz if you experience technical difficulties in lodging a submission through the website, or if you wish to check whether your emailed submission meets the committee’s criteria.
If your email is about technical difficulties, include a screenshot of the issue you’re experiencing.
Click here to make a submission by 1.00pm Tuesday, 14 January.
