Petitions, Papers, Select Committee Reports, and Introduction of Bills
No petitions have been delivered to the Clerk. Ministers have delivered four papers for presentation.
2023-24 annual reports for the:
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and
Auckland Light Rail Ltd
statement of performance expectations and statement of intent for New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Climate Change Commission, Report on the potential domestic contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand’s second nationally determined contribution.
I present the report of the Controller and Auditor-General entitled Assessing New Zealand’s climate change response with ClimateScanner. Those papers are published under the authority of the House. Select committee reports have been delivered for presentation.
Report of the Social Services and Community Committee on the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill.
The bill is set down for second reading. The Clerk has been informed of the introduction of three bills.
Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, introduction
Employment Relations (Termination of Employment by Agreement) Amendment Bill, introduction
Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill, introduction.
Those bills are set down—
Point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek leave to move a motion without notice and without debate that this House honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and withdraws the Treaty principles bill.
SPEAKER: Sorry could you—I didn’t hear what you said. You need to say it just slightly slowly, and just bear in mind that until I call it, no bills are tabled at this point.
RAWIRI WAITITI: Can I continue?
SPEAKER: Yeah.
RAWIRI WAITITI: I seek leave to move a motion without notice and without debate that this House honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and withdraws the Treaty principles bill.
Leave is sought. Is there any objection? There appears to be objection. Those bills are set down for first reading. We come now to—
Point of order, Mr Speaker. According to Standing Order 116, the House must take into account the constitutional relationship between the legislative and judicial branches of Government. The Treaty principles bill being proposed violates this constitutional relationship by overriding decades of judicial decisions.
Well, there’s two points here. Firstly, there is, obviously, a longstanding convention around that particular provision, but the position that you’re putting to me today is very much an opinion and not something that the House can act on or that I can act on. We come now to oral questions. The first—
Speaking to the point of order, the Treaty principles bill also violates the constitutional relationship between the Crown and Māori and undermines the legitimacy of this House.
Well, that might be—[Disturbance in public gallery] I’ll tell you what, the next person who calls out like that will be asked to leave. This is obviously an important matter, and it’s fair that you raise as many points as you want to. But the reality is that this is a bill that is set down for first reading and is not in contravention of what the House may do.
Point of order, Mr Speaker. The introduction of the Treaty principles bill without consulting the Governor-General is a violation of Standing Order 119, as it disrespectful to the King’s representative.
Well, the member who is raising that clearly forgets what was in the Speech from the Throne at the start of the Government’s term late last year. Now, I would suggest that these points of order need to come to a conclusion fairly swiftly.
DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: Speaking to the point of order—
SPEAKER: No, you’re not speaking to it—I’ve ruled on it.
DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: Point of order, Mr Speaker—a new point of order.
SPEAKER: All right.
DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: The introduction of the Treaty principles bill without consulting King Charles is a sign of disrespect and it brings the House into disrepute.
Now, with respect, you’re now trifling with the Chair because, as I’ve said, when a Government reads its Speech from the Throne at the beginning of the Parliament and mentions its intentions, that is considered to be the consultation, particularly when the Speaker takes the reply to that Address down to the Governor-General so that the Sovereign is fully aware of what’s going on.
Point of order, Mr Speaker.
SPEAKER: This had better be on an unrelated topic.
RAWIRI WAITITI: This is a new point of order, Mr Speaker.
SPEAKER: It might be a new point of order, but is it a related topic?
RAWIRI WAITITI: This bill contains an example of false and misleading information. That is forbidden under Standing Order 418. The articles are a complete fabrication and a bastardisation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
You cannot use the point of order process in the House to introduce debating material, and that’s what that is. That is the end of this matter—that’s the end of this matter. No more points of order will be taken on this.