Treaty references in legislation: joint call on three bills
The Justice Committee seeks one joint submission on three bills: standardising descriptive Treaty wording, repealing specified Treaty provisions, and changing selected obligations to a “take into account” standard. People may comment on one or several bills. No closing date is set.
- Closing date
- No closing date set
- Added to Civics
- 19 October 2026
- Source category
- Parliamentary
- Source body
- Justice Committee
- Last checked
- 19 October 2026
The indexed official joint call explicitly leaves the closing date to the next Justice Committee and accepts submissions during the election period. Its encouraged 1 December 2026 response date does not close the call.
Plain-English summary
The Justice Committee seeks one joint submission on three bills: standardising descriptive Treaty wording, repealing specified Treaty provisions, and changing selected obligations to a “take into account” standard. People may comment on one or several bills. No closing date is set.
Standardisation Bill 346-1: standardise references to both te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi, retain principles references and rework descriptive provisions. The stated policy intent is to preserve substantive legal effect; this is distinct from the other two bills.
Repeals Bill 348-1: remove specified operative or descriptive provisions from the Crown Pastoral Land, Education and Training, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Organic Products and Production, Plant Variety Rights, and Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Acts.
Strength of Legislative Obligations Bill 347-1: change selected obligations involving the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, Taumata Arowai, Criminal Cases Review Commission and education code administrators to a take-into-account standard, replacing wording such as uphold, honour or be consistent with.
The bills interact in some Acts and include transitional provisions. The package should not be described as three purely technical wording changes or as one bill rewriting all Treaty law.
The Justice Committee has issued one joint call for submissions on the Standardisation, Repeals and Strength of Legislative Obligations bills. Submitters may discuss any or all of them through the same portal.
Their purposes differ. Standardisation aims to make descriptive provisions and references consistent without substantive change. Repeals removes specified provisions, including some operative duties. Strength of Legislative Obligations changes the wording and weighting of selected obligations. These distinctions matter when identifying what each bill would change.
The bills include interactions and transitional protections, including for some existing education processes. This overview is based on the explanatory notes and selected clauses; it does not replace reading the provisions relevant to your submission.
Review the current invitation, source limitations and participation route before submitting feedback.
The summary distinguishes stated legislative purposes and selected provisions. It is not a complete assessment of legal consequences, every amended Act, all bill interactions or the linked regulatory analysis.
The native Parliament portal remains restricted. Current form fields, attachments, privacy handling and any anonymity decision were not verified.
The actual closing date remains unset. The Civics review date and the committee’s encouraged response date must not be converted into submission cutoffs.
Why it matters
The proposals address both how statutes describe Treaty relationships and the express duties applying in particular decision-making regimes. The effect depends on the specific provisions and interactions between the bills.
Who may care
- Māori, iwi, hapū and organisations concerned with Treaty obligations
- Public bodies, education participants, affected sectors, legal practitioners and people using the relevant public services
How to make a submission
- Use the single official joint-submission portal. The committee says a submission may address one or multiple bills and is counted towards all three; separate submissions are unnecessary.
- The committee suggests separating overall views, shared provisions and comments on each bill. This structure is optional; identify the clauses and changes you are discussing.
- The committee encourages views by 1 December 2026 but explicitly leaves closure to the next Justice Committee. That date is guidance, not a confirmed deadline.
- Keep contact information separate from the publicly released submission document. Discuss private information or a request for anonymity with committee staff first, and state clearly if you want to speak.
- Read all bills relevant to your comments and check the current form, attachment and confidentiality requirements. The response form was not inspected during this review.
Disclaimer
Civics.nz is an independent plain-English guide and is not an official government website. Always check the official source before making a submission.