In his book Unbridled Power, constitutional scholar (and future Prime Minister) Geoffrey Palmer described New Zealand's parliament as "the fastest legislature in the west" in reference to its constant abuse of process to speed legislation. Usually this is all-stages urgency, but recently we've had a problem with abbreviated committee processes as well, with tight deadlines used to ram laws through with a veneer (but not the substance) of democratic process.
This week's example is the Te Here ā Nuku (Nelson Tenths) Bill, which implements a court settlement over the state's theft of land from Nelson iwi and hapu. The bill was introduced to the house last Monday, and passed its first reading on Thursday. So far, so ordinary. Submissions on the bill are now open - but they close this Thursday, having been open for all of a week. And the bill will report back to the House by 29 July, having had just a month for select committee consideration.
Why the speed? Presumably because the regime has decided it wants it passed before the election. But its a bullshit process which leaves no time for real scrutiny or input. If there's a problem in the bill - if it is poorly drafted, or fails to properly implement the agreement, or whatever - then there's no time for anyone to notice, and no time for the committee to fix it. And no way to fix it afterwards, because the bill protects the state from all future claims in relation to the underlying proceedings or the settlement act itself.
While stemming from a different process, the bill covers similar ground to Treaty settlement bills. Those bills receive full process, with normal submission periods and committee consideration (and some then linger on the Order Paper for years, because there's no political urgency to actually implement Treaty justice). While on the one hand I'm pleased to see the government treating injustice against Māori with some urgency, this is not good legislative practice, and there are significant risks of getting it wrong. State-Māori relations are too important to be treated this way. Parliament needs to slow the fuck down, and make sure they get it right, rather than trampling on our democracy while risking serious and irreparable errors.
