Photo: Supplied
The Labour Party is calling for an extension to the deadline for online submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill, in light of reports of people encountering error messages on the website on its final day.
RNZ heard from people trying to submit on Monday night and Tuesday who had faced problems with the portal amid unprecedented numbers.
The deadline for New Zealanders to have their say through online public submissions was 11.59pm on Tuesday, 7 January.
However, the deadline for hard copies received through the post or delivered to Parliament was 5pm on Wednesday.
The legislation - which proposes to rewrite the Treaty principles as they are defined by the courts - has attracted widespread opposition and criticism, and tens of thousands of people marched against it when it passed its first reading in Parliament at the end of last year.
Labour's spokesperson for Māori development, Willie Jackson, had been at the funeral of Tariana Turia on Tuesday, and he said even there he had heard reports of people encountering problems with the portal.
He said there had been a massive push in the final hour to get people to submit their views.
Labour's Willie Jackson says a week extension of the deadline would be fair. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"This is the most substantial kaupapa that we've had to deal with - the most anti-Māori kaupapa we've had to deal with - in the last generation, since Foreshore and Seabed."
He told Morning Report potentially thousands of people would not have the opportunity to submit and extending it by at least a week would be the right thing to do.
Jackson said that once submissions were opened up, the Labour Party have been encouraging participation, with Peeni Henare and Duncan Webb going through the process online.
"It's incredibly important for us, and when you consider that the government actually introduced it a week early if you remember, I think extending it a week is not an unfair call.
"I was at Dame Tariana Turia's tangi yesterday, and it was brought up that Tariana would absolutely want our people to be doing the business instead of mourning her, that's how fantastic and amazing she was to get on with the mahi.
"That's what Tariana would've been saying, she would've had our people doing the submissions."
He said the government are embarrassed, and that ACT Party leader David Seymour wants to "milk this".
Advice from the Clerk of the House of Representatives, David Wilson, was for submitters encountering problems to wait a few minutes and try again.
But Jackson said it could be enough to deter people, and an extension of a week to the deadline would be fair.
"All New Zealanders, not just Māori [...] should be given the opportunity to submit."
Speaking to RNZ on Tuesday, legal expert Andrew Geddis said Parliament's IT systems should be set up to meet the needs of the people, rather than asking people to change their behaviour.
He said perhaps more investment was needed to ensure the system held up under pressure.
The decision to extend the deadline now sits with the Justice Select Committee.
The chair of the committee has been approached for comment.
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