The Justice Committee met on Thursday, 16 January to consider the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill.

The final number of submissions will be known once they have been checked for duplication, and criteria for acceptance. The Justice Committee intends to release an updated number of submissions when this is available.

The committee is happy to report there were no issues with the Parliament website during the re-opening period.

There will be a full day of oral hearings on Monday, 27 January. A further two hours of hearings will be held on Thursday, 30 January. Overall, the committee plans to hear 80 hours of oral submissions on the bill across four weeks of hearings. No hearings will be held in the week of Waitangi Day (6 February).

Submitters for the first week of hearings will be nominated by committee members from each Party.

The committee has agreed to split into two sub-committees to increase the number of people it can hear from in the time available. Each sub-committee will meet for 30 hours total, together making up 60 of the 80 planned hours of hearings.

The sub-committees will be made up of the following members.

• James Meager (Chair), Tamatha Paul (Deputy Chair), Todd Stephenson, Hon Ginny Andersen, Paolo Garcia, Dr Tracey McLellan

• Hon Dr Duncan Webb (Chair), Jamie Arbuckle (Deputy Chair), Tākuta Ferris, Cameron Brewer, Rima Nakhle

It is expected the sub-committees will hold their hearings in February.

The committee intends to publish written submissions on the Parliament website once they have been processed. It is expected that the submissions of those that will be heard on Monday, 27 January will be published on Friday, 24 January.

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