Constitutional Issues

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• Strengthen. Adopt Tax Payers Bill of Rights. Pass Regulatory Responsibilty Act. Return to privy council. Hold referendum of MMP voting system. (more here)

• Supports the resolution of, and restitution for, all outstanding historical and contemporary breaches of te Tiriti by the Crown and its representatives.(more here)
• Reform local government to give it a clear constitutional role and strengthen its democratic functions. (more here)
• Require all trade agreements and treaties to be subject to a vote of Parliament like any other legislation.

• Labour will ensure that all historical Treaty settlements are completed by 2020.
• Labour will implement a Treaty education programme for stakeholders andcommunities.
• Labour will work with Tuhoe in regard to their interests in Te Urewera.
• Labour will continue to work with iwi on innovative redress models to best reflect thenature of their claims under the Treaty of Waitangi.
• Labour will continue to uphold the availability of civil legal aid for iwi pursuing Waitangi Tribunal claims.
• Labour will not abolish the Waitangi Tribunal once historical treaty claims have been settled.

• Remove the Deadline for lodging of claims which was  imposed for 1 September 2008 and extend the timeframe for the settlement of historical claims with the Waitangi Tribunal to better enable iwi with such claims to properly research and state their cases. (more here)

• We will encourage active involvement and participation in the Constitutional Review we advanced in the 2008-2011 Parliament.
• All policy provided to Cabinet and all bills tabled in the House must be able to demonstrate the impact of the policy on whānau and the Treaty partnership. Only from this can be derived a model of justice which gives fair weight to the rights and needs of all peoples.
• We will establish, as an Officer of Parliament, a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Treaty to proactively review and monitor progress of Treaty Settlements, as well as the performance of the Office of Treaty Settlements (OTS) and the Crown’s commitment to the Treaty.
• Require an Annual Report to Parliament on progress on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to facilitate the right of Māori to preserve, evolve and transform their ways of life. We will introduce a requirement for Government departments and Crown entities to report annually on outcomes for Māori.
• We will monitor outcomes from the Constitutional Review to ensure it gives effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.(more here)

Not set out on their website.

• Embark on a public education process on constitutional matters, leading towards consideration of New Zealand as a republic within the Commonwealth in the future.
• Investigate an extension of the Parliamentary term to four years, with a fixed election day.
• Initiate a referendum on the future of Maori seats in Parliament with a view to abolishing the seats by 2017. This would give effect to the recommendation in the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System.
• Task the Local Government Commission with a review of the size and shape of all local government areas in order to reduce local government activity to a pre-1995 level. (more here)