Wellington watch - Treaty Principles Bill

The committee hearing submissions on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill has terminated the submission process early and reported back to Parliament with a recommendation that the Bill proceed no further. The Committee received 307,000 submissions to the Bill. 90% were opposed.

The matter will now go back to Parliament for its second reading and be voted down by every party except ACT. It will be a dead duck by Easter.

Perversely, the committee's decision to cut short the submission process brought howls from the likes of Labour’s Duncan Webb, who accused the committee of being anti-democratic, when the Labour Party had previously said the matter should not have been heard at all!