December 2011
| 16 November 2008 | Relationship and Confidence and Supply Agreement between the National Party and the Māori Party contains an agreement to establish a group to consider constitutional issues, including Māori representation. |
| 8 December 2010 | Announcement of a wide-ranging review of New Zealand's constitutional arrangements under the leadership of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Māori Affairs. |
| 4 August 2011 | Constitutional Advisory Panel named. |
| 11 December 2011 | Relationship Accord and Confidence and Supply Agreement between the National Party and the Māori Party agrees to continue to progress the review of constitutional arrangements. |
| December 2011 | The Panel proposes strategies for implementing the initial stages of the Consideration and for managing interaction with other government projects. |
| 2012-2013 | The Panel leads public discussion on constitutional issues that are under review. |
| September 2013 | The Panel's report identifies broad areas of public consensus and recommends where further work is needed. |
| End of 2013 | The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Māori Affairs submit a final report to Cabinet. |
| 2014 | The government has six months in which to respond to the Ministers' report. |
The Consideration of Constitutional Issues was part of the supply and confidence agreement reached between the National and Māori Parties after the 2008 election and was reaffirmed in their relationship accord of December 2011. It is jointly led by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Māori Affairs in consultation with a cross-party reference group of MPs. An independent Constitutional Advisory Panel will lead public discussion of constitutional issues and report to the Ministers, who are due to submit a final report to Cabinet by the end of 2013.
Purpose
Cabinet agreed in December 2010 that the purpose of the Consideration of Constitutional Issues is to:
- stimulate public debate and awareness of New Zealand's constitutional arrangements and issues arising
- seek the views of all New Zealanders, including those of Māori, in ways that reflect the partnership model and are responsive to Māori consultation preferences
- understand New Zealanders' perspectives on our constitutional arrangements
- recommend what further consideration of the issues, if any, is desirable.
Terms of reference
The terms of reference for the review comprise eight topics in three broad groupings:
-
electoral matters
- size of Parliament
- length of the term of Parliament, and whether or not it should be fixed
- size and number of electorates, including changing the method for calculating the size
- electoral integrity legislation
-
Crown-Māori relationship matters
- Māori representation, including Māori Electoral Option, Māori electoral participation, Māori seats in Parliament and local government
- role of the Treaty of Waitangi within our constitutional arrangements
-
other constitutional matters
- Bill of Rights issues
- written constitution.
Labour, the Greens, Act and United Future remarked on the absence of republican status from the terms of reference. Deputy Prime Minister Bill English said that although republican status was not in the terms of reference he expected it would be raised.
Constitutional Advisory Panel
The members of the Constitutional Advisory Panel are:
| Emeritus Professor John Burrows (Co-chair) | Sir Tipene O'Regan (Co-chair) |
| Peter Chin | Dr Leonie Pihama |
| Deborah Coddington | Hinurewa Poutu |
| Hon Dr Michael Cullen | Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith |
| Hon John Luxton | Peter Tennent |
| Bernice Mene | Emeritus Professor Dr Ranginui Walker |
The Panel is supported by a secretariat based in the Ministry of Justice.
Other constitutional initiatives
The Electoral Commission will undertake a review of MMP and report to the Minister of Justice by 31 October 2012. The review's scope explicitly excludes Māori representation and the number of MPs, but could potentially incorporate other matters linked to the Consideration, e.g. the size and calculation of electorates.
The Iwi Chairs Forum has asked Moana Jackson to convene a group of iwi leaders to promote discussion and debate on constitutional issues. This is an independent initiative, quite distinct from the Consideration.
Pleasance Purser, Research Services Analyst
| Disclaimer. Every effort has been made to ensure that the content of this briefing paper is accurate, but no guarantee of accuracy can be given. |
| This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/nz/. |