Tens of thousands of protsters gathered outside Parliament, demanding the Treaty Principles Bill be put to rest. Photo: Reece Baker
"Kill the bill" was the cry from the hīkoi as it stood before Parliament - and that's likely to happen with National and NZ First saying they will not support the Treaty Principles Bill at its second reading, but it may not be killed as quickly as protestors would like.
The crowd of 42,000 protesters was essentially demanding to bring the bill back to the House for its second reading faster, so it could be put to rest.
After a bill passes its first reading, it is sent to the relevant select committee. The committee hears submissions from the public, and then makes recommendations to Parliament in a report on whether the bill should proceed, and what amendments could be made.
The Justice Committee will accept submissions on the bill until 7 January. It anticipated it would complete oral hearings by the end of Feburary. The total committee process is expected to last six months, as is standard.
Committee chair and National MP James Meager said it was common for submissions to be accepted during the holiday period.
"Sometimes bills will come through at the end of December, and then the submission period will be through January. One of the reasons we've extended by a week is to make sure it doesn't fall on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve, and so give people the extra chance," he said.
The committee acknowledged the bill was controversial, and said it would consider and resolve criteria for submissions that would not be accepted in terms of offensive language.
"I think people anticipate it's going to be a pretty interesting issue. We're ready to receive roughly the same number as other slightly controversial have had this year," Meager said.
No decisions have yet been made yet as to whether the committee would go on the road and hear submissions from around the country.
Meager said the committee would release more information on Thursday about the other decisions it has made.
The hīkoi protesting against the Treaty Principles Bill in Wellington on 19 November 2024. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
Calls for submissions from both sides
The ACT Party has emailed its supporters to urge them to make submissions, saying even short submissions were welcome, but they should be factual and polite. In encouraging its supporters to make submissions, it warned that other parties were organising to "swamp" the committee with submissions against the bill.
The Green Party has also posted a guide to making submissions on the bill on its website.
Pressure group Hobson's Pledge has started to run a campaign targeted at the Prime Minister, calling him a "scaredy cat" and encouraging supporters to lobby Christopher Luxon to support the bill further.
ACT leader and associate justice minister David Seymour - who brought the bill to the House - said the committee would be a chance for every New Zealander to have their say on how the Treaty was interpreted in modern times.
"I think that's a really important thing. People who are in favour of having conversations should welcome that," he said.
Seymour said the committee would have 3.5 months until it finished hearings, and 2.5 months to deliberate.
"Let's say they've got six weeks to hear submissions. Out of six months, that's one week in four of the six months they've got that's devoted to hearing submissions. I don't think that's too bad at all."
A traffic-stopping haka broke out on a Wellington road as thousands took part in a hīkoi to Parliament. Photo: RNZ
'A strong depth of emotion'
The Prime Minister deferred to the Justice Committee on whether the select committee period would be shaved down from the full six months.
If the submissions go are heard until the end of Feburary, it means the Prime Minister will head to Rātana and Waitangi while the bill is still in play.
Asked whether he would have preferred the bill was disposed of by the time he goes to Waitangi, Luxon said: "It'll be what it'll be.
"There is a strong depth of emotion from all sides of this debate. Yes, it's not something that I like or support, but we have come to a compromise. Now it's in the hands of the Parliament, it's in the hands of the select committee. They work through the timing from here on through, as they should," he said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was in favour of shortening the select committee period. He did not want it to go to select committee at all.
"The quicker it gets reported back to the House, the quicker it gets voted down, as the National Party and New Zealand First have said they'll vote it down, the less divisive it'll be. The longer this goes on for, the more division there will be, the more anger there'll be, the more hatred there'll be, and the more divided and polarised as a country we could potentially become. So I think the sooner we get this over and done with, the better," he said.
Hipkins said opponents to the bill did not need more time - those out the front of Parliament had made their views clear enough.
He said if the bill was still being heard by the time the government attended Waitangi, it would be even more uncomfortable.
"I think that's all the more reason to get it over and done with."
While Seymour briefly fronted the hīkoi, Luxon decided not to.
Like Seymour, Luxon pointed out the organisers of the hīkoi had affiliations to Te Pāti Māori, and so decided not to speak with them.
"I was open to doing so, but the reality, frankly, is that many of them are Te Pāti Māori affiliated. But my message, more importantly, to the hīkoi in general is our longstanding position, as I've said from day one, is we don't support the bill and it won't be becoming law," he said.
The hikoi against the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill reaches Parliament. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
'It's creating harm'
Attendees who whakapapa Māori were encouraged to enrol on the Māori roll.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said she did not care whether people criticised the hīkoi as a Te Pāti Māori activation event.
"There are just as many Māori as there are non-Māori who find it disgraceful that we have a government that is attacking tangata whenua, indigenous rights, attacking te Tiriti, and prepared to trade off the mana that they have, the relationship with Māori," she said.
Ngarewa-Packer was also in favour of bringing the bill back to the House for second reading early.
"It's creating harm. And we want to be responsible, and be able to get the bill back into the House and get it voted down, because that's what the government says it's doing. The less harm, and the less energy put into it, and I guess we don't want to see the racism that's being fuelled at the moment," she said.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters dismissed the hīkoi, as the bill was not going to become law.
Like National, New Zealand First supported the bill at first reading but will not support it further.
"All this time off is a waste of time, because the bill is going nowhere," Peters said.
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