Peter Dunne: Political commentator on oral submissions today for the Treaty Principles Bill

Parliament is back to business today and straight into it with oral submissions for the Treaty Principles Bill. 

Today's speakers, including Andrew Little, Denis O'Reilly and David Seymour, have 10 minutes each to speak. 

Political commentator Karl Christensen talks to Ryan Bridge about what to expect, and how the contentious topic will be handled over the coming weeks. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big Dame Parliament back in business today. The first question
time won't be to tomorrow, but top of the agenda
is oral submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill. It is
the start of a full week process. David Seymour is
kicking things off this morning. Peter Dunn is the political
commentator with US former Leader of the United Future. Peter,
good morning, Good morning. I am so are we expecting

(00:22):
fireworks today? What's going to happen?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh? Look, I think from the likely list of submitters,
it's going to be pretty predictable for the positions that
they'll take. I think the question that's going to sort
of dog this whole process will be just how it
is handled, because there will be strong views expressed, and
just how the committee deals with those as it works
through the process. Over the next few weeks.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
We've got two day tea mocks in there, Andrew Little
Hobson's pledge, David seam or Dennis O'Reilly form a Black
Power member. Do they have they've got ten minutes to talk?
Is there then time for questions?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, ideally there should be, but but the timetable leaf
sets pretty tough. Signs expecting this probably are only going
to be about fifteen to twenty minutes per submission, which
means the ten minutes to talk and maybe only ten
five to ten minutes for questions. If I was a
witness and being smart, I think I've limited my verbal
presentation to about five minutes for our more time for questioning.

(01:14):
But it's going to be a very tight process all
the way through.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Who's allowed in the room to watch well?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
As I understand that it's being held in public. All
select committees normally meet in public, so basically whoever can
fit will be allowed in the room. Now, that could
be interesting what tends to happen in these things as
groups of supporters arrive for particular submissions and then depart
once those have been heard. But there could be some
people who want to stay the entire distance, and I

(01:42):
think there'll just be some usual logistical problems of fitting
them all in.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Lux And of course wants nothing to do with this.
How does he play this? He's got post gave this
afternoon in parliament, be in the house tomorrow presumably, how
does he handle it? Well?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I think he's got to carry on doing what he's doing,
and that is try and keep some distance from it.
The problem here is that he's got an issue that
there's not of his making, but he's committed to seeing
through to a certain stage which is going to take
some time yet, and yet he bears all the flat
from the negativity associated with it. So he's in a
no win position. But having said that, he like all

(02:15):
the other parties, have backed themselves into corners on their
respective positions before in the case of Actor, or against
in the case of everyone else, and I don't think
any of them can really afford to change their position
over the next few months.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Peter, thank you so much for that. Peter Dunpolittal, commentator.
It's all kicking off the Justice Select Committee in Wellington today.
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