The bill's purpose is to set out the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in legislation and to require, where relevant, that those principles must be used when interpreting legislation.
It passed its first reading to go out for public consultation, ACT’s coalition partners National and NZ First have stated they will not support the Bill at a second reading.
Mayor Neil Brown said the council had decided against submitting.
“With the likelihood of a wide range of views within the community on the Bill, council agreed not to spend time and money on a submission – particularly given the Prime Minister has said National do not support the Bill and will vote it down when it comes back from the Select Committee.”
At a recent activity briefing, chief executive Hamish Riach said it likely required some consultation to “accurately reflect all the views this community might hold”.
That would have been difficult to achieve given the short timeline he said.
Ultimately it was up to councillors if they wanted to submit he said.
Meanwhile, the regional council ECan voted by 12-4 last week to make a submission calling on the Government to abandon the Bill.
Mackenzie said the council had a partnership with Ngāi Tahu and he did not think it was ‘‘dependent on whether this Bill goes forward’’.
He reminded councillors what they were debating at the council table wasn’t about whether they support the bill or not, “we are debating whether we support the submission or not”.
“When I read the submission, it makes claims that I can’t agree to because I don’t believe they are true.”
His issue was firmly with the submission, not based on support of the Bill or not he said.
Chairperson Craig Pauling said not speaking up was not an option for him.
‘‘Are we political? I’m pretty sure we are politicians. Every decision we make is political.”
On the same day, the Selwyn council voted to submit against the bill, with Grant Miller and Elizabeth Mundt voting against it, while Lydia Gliddon chose not to vote.
Miller said the council was “varying dangerously” from its apolitical stance and questioned if the council had a mandate from the community to submit when “private submissions are perfectly acceptable”.
Submissions on the bill close on January 7.
By Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy Reporter
■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
