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References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Bill

The single broad policy of this omnibus bill is to amend the weighting of te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi provisions in legislation to a single standard of "take into account".

This bill has been accorded urgency in the House, with referral to a select committee. First detected 15 September 2026, 4:25am UTC.

Member in charge: Hon Paul Goldsmith · Government bill · No. 347-1 · urgency accorded 15 Sep 2026 (the first reading, and referral to select committee of the)
Bill on parliament.nz → RSS

Want a say? This bill is still moving

Urgency compresses the timetable, not the politics. Until the third reading, the committee of the whole House can still amend the bill — changes are moved right up to the final vote. The channels that operate at this speed:

  • Contact the member in charge — Hon Paul Goldsmith — whose office decides what amendments are put, and your electorate MP. Members’ offices monitor correspondence while the House sits; a specific, clause-level point travels furthest.
  • Contact the opposition spokesperson for this portfolio — they speak and move amendments in the committee stage, and concrete problems raised by affected people are exactly what they put on the record.
  • Prepare a submission — this bill was referred to a select committee, so a public submission window is likely to open. Use the bill’s parliament.nz page (“Get notifications”) to catch it the moment it opens.
  • Start or sign a petition at petitions.parliament.nz — the formal channel that stays open regardless of the House’s timetable.

Stages observed

StageSitting dayRecord
Introduction 15 Sep 2026 Introduction of bills: References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Bill source · debate & vote (Hansard)

Dates are sitting days as recorded by the Office of the Clerk; a sitting extended under urgency continues under its original day. Readings are decided by party vote: each party casts its members’ votes en bloc (proxies included), so the whole House needn’t be present and individual attendance isn’t recorded — the party-by-party tally for each reading is in that day’s Hansard, linked per stage above.

Who spoke in the debates

Members who took a call in this bill’s debates, from our Hansard corpus. Under urgency several bills are often debated together (a “cognate” debate), so speakers may be addressing the group of bills.

● Camilla Belich Labour · 2 ● Casey Costello NZ First · 2

What this touches

Topics in the OpenBrief corpus matched to this bill’s title, with their volume over the last six weeks — how loud the subject already was when urgency was moved. This is retrieval against our existing corpus, not model judgement.

TopicPress items · 6wkSocial posts · 6wk
landlord references 0 0
treaty of waitangi and foreign policy 0 0
treaty of waitangi and military service 0 0
treaty of waitangi site 1 2

What this bill changes

AI-assisted analysis · every claim links to primary source · corrections
Published 16 Sep 2026, 7:21am UTC (separate from, and later than, the alert timestamp above) · model: claude-opus-4-8

In short: Four Acts' Treaty provisions are changed from "uphold"/"honour"/"be consistent with" to a "take into account" standard.

What changes
Changes a threshold The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission board's duty to ensure capability and capacity to "uphold" the Treaty and its principles becomes a duty to "take into account" te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.
cl 5 → Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Act 2020, s 9 · affects: Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, its board, Māori · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“In section 9(1)(a), replace “uphold the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)” with “take into account te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi”.”
Changes a threshold The Water Services Authority—Taumata Arowai board's duty to ensure capability and capacity to "uphold" the Treaty and its principles becomes a duty to "take into account" te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.
cl 8 → Water Services Authority—Taumata Arowai Act 2020, s 19 · affects: Water Services Authority—Taumata Arowai, its board, Māori · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“In section 19(1)(b)(i), replace “uphold the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)” with “take into account te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi”.”
Changes a threshold The Criminal Cases Review Commission's requirement that its procedures be consistent with the principles of the Treaty is replaced with a requirement to take those principles into account when making its procedures.
cl 10 → Criminal Cases Review Commission Act 2019, s 15 · affects: Criminal Cases Review Commission, applicants to the Commission, Māori · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“The Commission must take the principles of te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi into account when making its procedures.”
Changes a threshold A code administrator's obligation to perform its functions in a manner that "honours" te Tiriti o Waitangi becomes an obligation to do so in a manner that takes it into account.
cl 12 → Education and Training Act 2020, s 535B · affects: code administrators, international students, education providers, Māori · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“In section 535B(a), replace “honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi” with “takes into account te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi”.”
Changes a threshold The section 3 Treaty provision of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Act is amended to replace "uphold the Treaty" with "take into account te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi".
cl 4 → Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Act 2020, s 3 · affects: Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, Māori · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“In section 3(b)(i), replace “uphold the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)” with “take into account te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi”.”
Procedural Applications and performance improvement notices dealt with by code administrators before commencement continue under the old law as if the amendment had not been enacted.
cl 13 → Education and Training Act 2020, Schedule 1 · affects: code administrators, education providers, affected students · confidence: high
The bill text this is based on
“continues to apply in respect of the following as if the References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Act 2026 had not been enacted”
Who this affects
Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissionits boardMāoriWater Services Authority—Taumata ArowaiCriminal Cases Review Commissionapplicants to the Commissioncode administratorsinternational studentseducation providersaffected students
Scrutiny

Taken under urgency; the compressed timetable limited scrutiny even where a committee stage existed.

Commencement: Comes into force 1 month after Royal assent.
Retrospective: no provision identified
Gaps we can see. Clauses whose effect could not be established from the bill text alone: cl 7 (amends s 5 of Water Services Authority—Taumata Arowai Act 2020; grounded, see below), cl 13(b) 'make all necessary consequential amendments' — scope not specified in text.

Method: the model reads the bill as published (claude-opus-4-8); every claim above carries a verbatim span of that text, checked mechanically — claims that fail the check are dropped, not softened. Text analysed from an archived copy of the official text. Full methodology →

Source record — the urgency motion as published
15 September 2026 — scope: the first reading, and referral to select committee of the (First reading, Referral to select committee) 
A motion to accord urgency to the following business was agreed to:
- the remaining stages of the:
  - India Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill;
  - Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill;
  - Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill; and
  - Summary Offences (Move-on Orders) Amendment Bill
- the first reading, and referral to select committee of the:
  - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Repeals) Amendment Bill;
  - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Strength of Legislative Obligations) Amendment Bill; and
  - References to Tiriti o Waitangi/Treaty of Waitangi (Standardisation) Amendment Bill
- the second reading and committee stage of the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Amendment Bill;
- the remaining stages of the Public Works Amendment Bill;
- the committee stage of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (3 Day Postnatal Stay) Amendment Bill;
- the remaining stages of the:
  - Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill;
  - Policing Amendment Bill;
  - Corrections (Management of Prisoners, and Prisoners’ Property) Amendment Bill;
  - Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill;
  - Land Transport (Revenue) Amendment Bill;
  - Financial Markets Conduct Amendment Bill; and
  - Commerce (Promoting Competition and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.
Source: Daily progress in the House → · Hansard for this sitting day →