The Justice Committee has reopened submissions on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. The new deadline for submissions is 1.00pm, Tuesday, 14 January 2025.

The committee unanimously agreed to reopen submissions due to the technical issues affecting the Parliament website in the closing days of the submission period. The committee’s intention is to ensure that everyone who tried to make a submission but was unable will have the opportunity to do so.

Indications are that the committee has received over 300,000 submissions on the bill, although the committee 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 I n 2021.

Over 150,000 submissions were lodged via the Parliament website on 7 January 2025. The committee strongly encourages those wishing to make submissions to do so promptly, and to not leave doing so until the final hours on Tuesday, 14 January.

Anyone who emailed a submission to treatyprinciples@parliament.govt.nz or justice@parliament.govt.nz between Monday, 6 January and 9.00am Thursday, 9 January 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 conditions put in place by the Justice Committee for this item of business. If your email submission meets the criteria above, you do not need to re-make your submission via the website portal.

Each submitter will be counted only once, even if a submitter makes multiple submissions.

Please get in touch with 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, please include a screenshot of the issue you are experiencing.

Please note that due to the high level of public engagement, you may experience a delay in receiving a response to queries. Committee staff are working hard to support everyone to participate in the committee’s work, and the committee appreciates your patience.

Click here to make a submission by 1.00pm Tuesday, 14 January.

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