Peter Williams: The Results are in

But the submissions score surely does not tell the real story

It was probably just coincidence but within two hours of me posting my previous Substack asking how many submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill were opposed and how many were in favour, the chair of the Justice Select Committee James Meager very kindly produced the numbers.

In case you missed them, he reports that of the more than 300,000 written submissions 90 percent were opposed to the Bill, 8 percent were supportive of it and 2 percent were unstated.

Peter Williams: We need the full story on the Treaty Principles Bill

So in the end all the submissions made on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill will be on the Parliamentary record. But many of them, thousands it would seem, will not be read or processed until after the Justice Select Committee has reported to the House.

This still makes a mockery of the process. After all, this was the bill that attracted the most submissions of any in the history of our Parliament. That in itself states unequivocally that this was a discussion or conversation or debate or whatever you like to call it that the country wanted and needed to have.