The Justice Committee has decided how submitters will be selected for the remaining 70 hours of hearings on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. The committee has also issued an indicative hearings schedule.

This media release contains information about subcommittee membership, lists of scheduled submitters, official coverage of hearings, and the publication of written submissions.

Selection of submitters

The committee has agreed the following process for selecting submitters for hearings.

Each party can nominate up to 100 names. The chairperson, Hon James Meager, and a representative from the Opposition, Hon Dr Duncan Webb, will collate the lists from parties and select the submitters to be invited.

Two lists will be agreed. The first list will contain parties’ highest priority submitters. The second list will be used to fill gaps when submitters decline the committee’s invitation or do not respond to contact from committee staff before designated deadlines.

Organisations and relevant experts will be allocated 10 minutes for their submissions. Members of the public will be allocated five minutes. The total number of submitters to be invited will depend on parties’ nominations. There are 70 hours of hearings remaining to be scheduled.

The committee has received over 16,000 requests to make oral submissions. Only a small number of this total will be invited to make oral submissions. The committee thanks submitters for their patience and understanding as it works through its process for selecting submitters.

The committee intends to publish a media release on Wednesday, 5 February with the primary list of submitters to be invited.

Hearings schedule

All hearing dates and times are indicative only and subject to change, particularly based on submitter availability.

The full committee intends to hold hearings on:

• Thursday, 13 February, 8.00am – 10.00am
• Monday, 17 February, 9.00am – 4.00pm
• Thursday, 20 February, 8.00am – 10.00am

Subcommittee A intends to hold hearings on:

• Monday, 24 February, 8.00am – 5.00pm
• Tuesday, 25 February, 8.00am – 5.00pm
• Wednesday, 26 February, 8.00am – 5.00pm
• Thursday, 27 February, 8.00am – 3.00pm

Subcommittee B intends to hold hearings on:

• Friday, 7 February, 9.00am – 3.30pm
• Tuesday, 25 February, 9.00am – 3.30pm
• Thursday, 27 February, 9.00am – 3.30pm
• Friday, 28 February, 10.00am – 4.30pm
• Monday, 3 March, 10.00am – 4.30pm

Subcommittee membership

The sub-committees are made up of the following members.

• Subcommittee A

Hon James Meager (Chair), Hon Ginny Andersen (Deputy Chair), Dr Tracey McLellan, Tom Rutherford, Todd Stephenson, Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan

• Subcommittee B 
  Hon Dr Duncan Webb (Chair), Jamie Arbuckle (Deputy Chair), Carl Bates, Tākuta Ferris, Rima Nakhle

Lists of scheduled submitters

The list of submitters for each hearing will be published on the Submitters List page on the Parliament website in the days leading up to hearings.

Official coverage of hearings

Live-streamed official coverage of the hearings will be available on the Parliament website here.

On-demand official coverage is made available within one to two days of the hearing and can be found on the committee’s Vimeo page here.

Publication of written submissions

On Monday, 10 February, the committee intends to publish the submissions of those submitters that have been invited to make oral submissions. The submissions of submitters scheduled to make submissions on Friday, 7 February are intended to be published at 9.01am on 7 February.

Published submissions are available on the Parliament website here.

Further written submissions, including from submitters that are not invited to make oral submissions, will be published in due course. Submissions are published after they have been vetted by committee staff and tabled by the committee. Given the large volume of submissions, this process will take some time. The committee appreciates there is public interest in the publication of submissions and thanks the public for its patience.

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