Te Aka Kōrero | Newsletter

Ka puta Matariki, ka rere Whānui, ko te tohu o te tau.
Matariki appears as Whānui flees; this is a sign of the New Year.

Greetings from all of us at Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission. We hope you have been keeping warm and that you had a chance to rest and celebrate Matariki. We have a few updates for you as we head into the second half of 2025.

He aituā | Paying tribute to Tamati Cairns

In May we received the sad news that Tamati Cairns, much respected kaumātua and leader, had passed away. Tamati was a member of our Māori Liaison Committee. He participated in wānanga for the review of succession law (2021) and helped us understand some of the tikanga relevant to succession, including on the practice of whāngai, where a child is raised by someone other than their birth parents. His contributions were such that we referred to his analysis several times in our final report. He shared his profound knowledge of tikanga again with us in wānanga for our review of the law on adult decision-making capacity (2022) and our review of the law on preventive detention and post-sentence orders (2023).

We are incredibly fortunate that Tamati was willing to help us with our work well into his 70s. Ka rere ā mātou mihi ki a koe, e te rangatira. Haere, haere, haere atu rā.

NZLII timeline for He Poutama

The New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) has now included a timeline of statutory and common law engagement with tikanga in its collection of Māori Law Resources. We first published this as an appendix to our Study Paper He Poutama (NZLC SP24, 2023). The online version provides links to cases and statutes. The timeline is available here.

Two new projects to commence this year

The Minister of Justice has asked us to commence two new projects this year:

• A review of the Criminal Procedure (Mentally Impaired Persons) Act 2003, which provides for how the justice system responds to people with mental impairments who are facing criminal charges. We will begin work on this review project later this year.
• A review of directors’ duties and liabilities, which are provided for in the Companies Act 1993 and in a range of other legislation. We have begun preparatory work and will publish terms of reference for this project in the coming months.

What happens after a Law Commission report is published?

Earlier this year, we delivered our Final Report Here ora: Preventive measures in a reformed law (NZLC R149, 2025) to the Government. The Report contains our recommendations for reform of the law governing preventive detention, extended supervision orders and public protection orders.

But what are the next steps? We’re guided by a Cabinet Office Circular that sets out the process:

• Tabling at Parliament — Once a Final Report is complete, it is presented to Parliament by the Minister responsible for the Law Commission. Currently, this is the Minister of Justice Hon Paul Goldsmith.
• Government response — The Government may accept or reject any or all our recommendations. The Government usually issues a formal response to our reports within 120 working days, though it may choose not to if it accepts our recommendations. We are currently awaiting the Government’s response to our Final Report on preventive measures. When we receive the Government’s response, we publish it on our website.
• Implementation — If the Government decides to implement our recommendations, that work will be led by the government department responsible for the area of law. We are not directly involved in the implementation. However, the Government might request input from us when preparing legislation.

Hara ngākau kino | Hate Crime

In early February we published our Consultation Paper seeking views on the problems with the current law and how they should be addressed. We are currently developing our recommendations for law reform. We plan to deliver our final report in 2026.

Ia Tangata | A Review of the Protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics

We are currently working on our Final Report setting out our recommendations for law reform. We anticipate our report will be published on our website in August.

Ngā Huarahi Whakatau | Review of Adult Decision-making Capacity Law

We are currently working on the Final Report of this project, which will be completed later this year.