It is not just that there are 300,000 submissions and that they take a lot of time to process and to read.
The real problem is that two-thirds of the submissions are opposed to the Bill.
No government MP wants to read every submission describing how much of a stupid idea it was to allow the Bill’s introduction, let alone then have to consider the Bill’s actual provisions.
After all, how can they do anything but agree?
The whole process of the Bill has been plagued with failings.
It was a PR nightmare for the prime minister, who had to endure weeks of it being in the headlines.
The Bill, and its Act New Zealand advocates, spent months stealing that precious post-election media honeymoon from his new government.
The prime minister became more and more exasperated with having to answer different versions of a really good question: "Why did you do this to yourself?"
The select committee process also had its tragedies, the submissions website crashing and the committee having to extend the deadline.
Its first deadline of January 6 was a horribly cynical move in the first place, designed to reduce the number of submissions.
The select committee deliberately shortened the submission period, chose a closing date during most people’s summer holiday break and then had to reopen the submissions for another week because the portal crashed.
This obvious, and sordid, attempt to limit public engagement in the submission stage failed spectacularly.
The select committee members then had to spend over 80 hours listening to people tell them, in detail and with creativity and authority, all the many reasons why they had got it wrong on a Bill they did not support.
There is no fun in that. There is no progress or forward momentum. It is just you watching 80 hours of your precious time speeding by, wasted on someone else’s obsession with no value to you, or your work, or your electorate.
Those hearings must have been torture. And a torture that the Act party MPs avoided, because they were absent for 30 of the 80 hours.
And now we hear that these government MPs are so vexed by the weight of the public submissions that they asked for, they do not want to have to read the submissions any more.
Especially not the thousands of submissions that describe the harm the Bill is doing to whānau, communities and the country.
The MPs’ pukus are full of this queasy meal. The attack on the constitutional authority of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty of Waitangi is indigestible.
It is a meal full of racism, disinformation and supremacy. No wonder they do not want any more.
There is a teachable moment for the government’s supporters here: be wary of faithless friends.
Despite this exposure of the government’s poor democratic commitment and its inability to hold faith with the New Zealand public’s right to have a say in law and policy, I for one am looking forward to the Bill returning to the House.
It is a nasty piece of work and the sooner it goes down the gurgler the better.
We already hear the Act party calling for a referendum on the Treaty.
Amazing that they think anyone could trust them now after these shambles.
So here lies another teachable moment, this time for the prime minister.
It is a lesson that is familiar to everyone with children: "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?"
Having said yes once already, I hope he has learned his lesson well.
■Metiria Stanton Turei is a senior law lecturer at the University of Otago and a former Green Party MP and co-leader.
