Once the Deed of Settlement is signed and the Post Settlement Governance Entity (PSGE) is voted in, Parliament will pass a law to:
- confirm that the settlement is final, and
- make the settlement legally binding.
The legislation is usually written at the same time as the Deed of Settlement. This is so that your representatives and the Crown can check that the legislation covers everything they agreed to in the Deed.
Once your representatives and the Crown agree that it’s ready:
- The legislation is introduced to Parliament as a Bill for its first reading. All Members of Parliament vote on the legislation.
- A Select Committee will review the legislation. Anyone who wants to, like other claimant groups or members of the public, can make a submission to the Select Committee about it. After the Select Committee has considered the legislation and the submissions, they’ll send it back to Parliament for a second reading together with any recommendations they have for amending the legislation.
- Parliament does a second reading of the legislation.
- Parliament reads the legislation a third time — this is when the legislation is officially passed. It’s an important, historic event, and members of the claimant group can go to Parliament to watch this happen.
- The Governor General gives the legislation “royal assent”. The claimant group will get a letter confirming that the Settlement Act has been passed into law and the Deed of Settlement is now unconditional.
The requirements of the Settlement Act and Deed begin on the settlement date, usually 40 working days after the Act passed into law. The redress package will then be passed to your PSGE and the historical claims will be settled.