Do New Zealand select committees still make a difference? The case of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill 2019

Abstract

An emerging consensus among scholars of environmental politics includes public participation in the legislative process as a critical condition of the transition to sustainability. The select committee process in Aotearoa New Zealand has long been celebrated for its apparent openness to public participation. We examine the select committee process as it functioned in the case of the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill 2019, employing a quantitative analysis that mapped categories of submitters’ policy propositions through the constant comparative method, and compare them against the recommendations of the majority and minority perspectives of the Environment Select Committee. In addition, we compare the majority and minority recommendations to the Departmental Report. The results of this case study incline us to question the assumption that submitters have influence with select committees and the extent of committee deliberation. If the transition to sustainability depends on the government’s capacity for transformative change, and that capacity in turn depends on the strength of its deliberative system, then our study provides some reason to worry about the capacity of government in Aotearoa New Zealand to respond to the challenge of climate change.