Māori lawyer Annette Sykes says the Crown has not provided a brief of evidence to the Tribunal over the Bill. Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen
Claimants in an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing say the ACT Party's Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) is a more aggressive and stealthier version of the Treaty Principles Bill.
Claimant lawyers presented their evidence to the Tribunal on Wednesday in a tight, online-only hearing that had to pushed forward by three weeks.
Māori rights group Toitū te Tiriti has been campaigning on social media to raise awareness about the bill, warning its introduction into the law would diminish the Crown's obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi and asking for people to join their claim to the Tribunal.
Māori lawyer Tania Waikato, who represents the group, told the Tribunal the bill would make it impossible for legislation adhering to the Treaty to be accepted by the government.
"They are setting up a framework which creates, for all future legislation plus all existing legislation, [means] they will fail every time. You'll have a proposition where the minister has to explain the Treaty provision - they have to explain why."
Waikato said the bill handed too much power to the Ministry of Regulation and the proposed Regulatory Standards Board.
"The constitutional and wide-ranging nature of the RSB and the suite of powers proposed to be granted to the minister, the ministerially appointed Regulatory Standards Board and the ministry are inappropriate, dangerous, and raise sincere questions about constitutional overreach," Waikato said.
The hearing into the bill joins a long list of urgent inquiries facilitated by the Tribunal since the coalition government came into power.
Te Roopu Waiora lawyer Tom Bennion said submitters on the bill felt uncertain about what the principles of the bill were.
"We find all but one of the principles - the one about taxing I think - they state from the Crown Law Office, from the legislative design committee and from submitters generally. Great uncertainty, major uncertainty," Bennion said.
The hearing was originally for 6 June but had to be pushed forward, meaning only the claimant's lawyers were able to provide evidence.
The bill is set to be introduced to Parliament on 19 May, meaning the Tribunal will lose its jurisdiction to scrutinise it. It meant the Tribunal had to cut the usual proceedings down to one day, facilitate it online, and restrict evidence submission to claimants lawyers only.
Māori lawyer Annette Sykes said it was a reoccurring issue.
"One of the key things I think we believe that the Tribunal has to grapple is the way that the Crown has not provided a brief of evidence to the Tribunal."
Sykes said the 6 June date was dismissed by cabinet.
ACT Party leader David Seymour said many of the arguments raised by opponents to the bill were similar some raised when it a version of it was put forward 15 years ago.
Seymour said putting a reference to the Treaty into the bill would undermine one of its core principles, which was equal rights for all under the law.
"The bill says that all New Zealanders have a right to live under a government that asks and answers the right questions before it regulates their property rights."
"It's not obvious how introducing the Treaty into that would help, it certainly wouldn't clarify it. If anything, it would further confuse it," Seymour said.
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