Two committees of the New Zealand Law Society are now investigating the Three Waters entrenchment debacle, National Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“Law Points, the NZ Law Society weekly newsletter, today reported that the Public & Administrative Law Committee as well as the Rule of Law Committee are considering the processes used to introduce the offensive entrenchment clause.

“Using urgency in Parliament, Labour and the Greens added an entrenchment provision that means once Three Waters becomes law, it would take 60 per cent of MPs to overturn it, instead of a simple majority which applies to almost every law passed.

“Entrenchment is a rarely-used provision that, until now, it has been reserved for important constitutional matters and legal experts say its use in this case is deeply inappropriate.

“This is getting worse and worse for the Government and the Prime Minister needs to back down right now, admit Labour’s mistake, and assure the public they will immediately take steps to fix it.

“The time for dissembling is over. Trying to shift the issue to Parliament’s Business Committee is a distraction.

“Labour must stop playing havoc with New Zealand’s constitution in the name of politics.

“Entrenchment is simply not appropriate for public policy matters like this. It should be reserved for genuinely constitutional matters, not whatever the government of the day decides is important.

“Labour should refer the Water Services Entities Bill back to the committee of the whole house stage to remove the offensive entrenchment provision.”

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