We are concerned that the Protection for First Responders and Prison Officers Bill fails to provide a solution to the issue which it seeks to address. This bill fails to recognize that many of the people who will be affected by this bill are not in a rational or calm state of mind during the time these assaults occur. Many of the people affected by this bill will be punished for an action which they did not have full control over at the time of the offence. People who were not making a calculated decision to harm someone, but who were in fact reacting out of the pain and trauma they were experiencing. People who are - no doubt - severely distressed, mentally ill, intoxicated, or any combination of the above at the time the offence occurs. If this bill goes through it will have catastrophic consequences for our community. When you send one of our whanau to jail, it does not just affect the individual. It harms all of us. The children left behind without parents, the partners left alone to manage on their own, the whanau and friends who have to struggle with the stigma and loss of losing someone they love. And when that person has done their time and they are released back to us, they will be only further traumatized and harmed by a system which is just not working to rehabilitate our people. This bill will not prevent people from assaulting First Responders or Prison Officers, instead it will succeed only in increasing our prison numbers. Instead of seeking punitive responses to complex problems, we believe parliament would be better served using our time and resources seeking out real solutions. For example: ★ Review the calibre and frequency of de-escalation and assessment training provided to First Responders and Prison Officers. ★ Provide ongoing de-escalation and assessment training to all professionals working on the front line. ★ Provide intensive training for all first responders and prison officers around addiction, mental illness, and the effects of trauma and colonization. Build understanding within our frontline workers so that they are equipped to identify the risks and respond accordingly. Knowledge is power, and the more our First Responders and Prison Officers understand about the complex challenges facing people within our community, the more equipped they will be to deescalate tensions and provide a compassionate and effective response. ★ Bring back the previous governments plan to create a mental health team equipped to support the Police in de-escalating and caring for people in crisis and suffering from mental distress. ★ Review whether First Responders and Prison Officers have the right support to manage these high and complex situations they are being asked to walk into. Are they staffed adequately to deal with these situations? Do they have adequate safety and support plans in place to mitigate the risks they are dealing with? To protect our First Responders and Prison Officers we must provide solutions that prevent them from being harmed in the first place. The concern we have with the Protection for First Responders and Correction Officers Bill is that it fails to actually address the concerns it seeks to highlight. It will not prevent our First Responders and Prison Officers from being assaulted, and will only punish the very people who need our help and assistance the most. Our hope is that parliament will not proceed with this bill, but rather will redirect it’s energy into providing solutions that will mitigate the risk that our First Responders and Prison Officers face, with the goal of preventing these assaults from happening in the first place. If you would like to read more about this bill you can do so here: https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-crime/revenge-justice-wont-keep-new-zealands-first-responders-safe The Protection for First Responders and Prison Officers Bill https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/bills-and-laws/bills-proposed-laws/document/BILL_78241/protection-for-first-responders-and-prison-officers-bill

New Zealanders believe in fairness. We believe people should be given a fair go. But as it stands, successive governments’ underfunding of legal aid has allowed access to justice to become a privilege reserved only for the rich. In 2016 the Law Society found that the average charge-out rate for lawyers was a staggering $292.70 per hour plus GST.* If you work a 40 hour week on minimum wage, that’s a week’s pay gone in just two hours! The representation, advice, and support from legal aid lawyers is a crucial bridge to access to justice for the many whānau who are unable to front exorbitant legal fees. It is meant to be a safety net for people who cannot afford a lawyer and can be the difference between having the opportunity to right wrongs and rebuild your life, or ending up in the overcrowded cages we call jail. Legal aid is also one of the only ways people can access Section 27 cultural reports, which examine the reasons why people cause harm or offend in the first place in order to inform sentences that result in less harm and more good in the future. For too long, people in government have neglected legal aid and placed unfair restrictions on who can qualify for help. As a result, more and more people are going into a spiral of debt or having to represent themselves in court without professional legal support. We want to see a significant increase to funding for legal aid in Budget 2020 to make sure justice and legal representation is available to all - not just the few. References and further reading: Access denied: Thousands brave NZ courts without a lawyer due to cost. NZ Herald, 4 November 2018. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12277484 The New Zealand Legal Services Mapping Project: Finding free and low-cost legal services. Civil Justice Insights Series: University of Otago Legal Issues Centre, 2018. Kayla Stewart and Bridgette Toy-Cronin. https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/8054/Mapping%20UOLIC%20Report%2023%20May.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y Charge-out rates information released. New Zealand Law Society, 2016. https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/lawtalk/lawtalk-archives/issue-893/charge-out-rates-information-released. *This research focussed on lawyers employed at law firms Legal aid funding limits creating ‘justice gap.’ Stuff. 19 July 2014. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10285613/Legal-aid-funding-limits-creating-justice-gap Lawyers duck legal aid work. Stuff. 26 July 2014. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/10312946/Lawyers-duck-legal-aid-work

Most of us believe family comes first. But in just a matter of days, some people in the Australian government could deport two small girls to their death - unless the New Zealand government offers them safety. Picture this: Two small girls scream with fear as they are forced to watch their mum being physically dragging onto a plane - she fights the attempt to deport her back to Sri Lanka, a country she escaped after watching her fiancé be burnt alive. Priya knows that if she and her daughters are forced back, her daughters may suffer the same fate, or even worse as revenge for her escape, like any mum, she is fighting for her children’s safety. Tharunicaa and Kopika are 2 and 4, they were born in Australia and have lived their whole lives in the town of Biloela, a community that loves them and their parents Priya and Nades and is desperately fighting for them to stay. The whole town wants them back home, but instead the Australian government has sent them to Christmas Island, a detention centre routinely used for the deportation of people with criminal convictions and which our own politicians have described as disgraceful. While the Australian government is refusing to let them go home, we are begging the NZ government to step in and save these two girls from likely death. A temporary court injunction has stopped the deportation until Friday this week but without an intervention, their future remains uncertain and terrifying. New Zealand has previously taken refugees rejected by Australia. In 2001, Australia refused entry to 433 refugees on the Tampa. Those people were welcomed by New Zealand and have gone on to become small business owners, doctors, nurses, public servants, students, keen rugby players and even a Fulbright scholar. Priya’s husband, Nades, who she met in Australia has been working in the Biloela meatworks for over five years until they were taken into detention. He is hardworking and capable and, with meatworks employers across New Zealand screaming out for more workers he can start working straight away to support his family. They are the kind of family New Zealand needs and could have the same incredible impact on any new Zealand community that they have on the families of Biloela. They are now two days away from being deported back to danger. They are the only refugees on abandoned Christmas Island prison. Tharunicaa and Kopika cannot stop crying, asking when they can leave this scary place and go back to their home. It’s time for us to bring them here and allow them to make New Zealand their home. Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/04/biloela-tamil-familys-deportation-blocked-until-at-least-friday

Tumu Kaituna 14 has been recognised by Heritage New Zealand as land that holds considerable significant historical, archaeological, cultural importance to all of New Zealand and has areas on the land designated for protection and preservation. Our concerns are the proposed urban development will destroy one of the few significant and unique historical, cultural, spiritual and environmental places we have left in Tauranga Moana which runs along our sacred Kaituna River. We want to keep one of the last remaining pieces of Māori-owned land at Pāpāmoa (Aotearoa New Zealand) in Māori hands. We are fighting a plan by Tumu Kaituna 14 Trust, Tauranga City Council, various developers and neighbouring non-Māori land owners that if successful will strip us of our ancestral land. More than 4,900 Māori land owners will be alienated. While the plan is expected to provide new housing for 15,500 people, we have seen no plans that provide housing for Māori land owners and expect the price range will be well out of Māori land owners reach. We have concerns of what that kind of urban development would do to the environment and our sacred waahi tapu sites. The plan lacks Māori values including intergenerational thinking. Our people are really hurt that those they have put their faith in could potentially take away what little land they have left. Save Tumu Kaituna campaign is led by the descendants of the Māori land owners of Tumu Kaituna 14 who lived on the land during the flax trading era and fought for the land in the 1860s. Many died and were buried here. It is well known amongst Māori that kōiwi are buried all along the sand dunes at Papamoa. As recent as December 2017, 600 year old young Polynesian male bones were found on the land by an archaeologist and there have been many many other similar findings of koiwi.

The proposed assault weapons ban is now being considered by parliament. The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee is hearing public feedback on the plans. There is only a very short window for public submissions in order to pass these laws as quickly as possible. There has already been vocal opposition to the ban from gun sellers and lobbyists. They will be organised and ready to oppose the proposed changes, and likely attempt to water them down. We are asking you to add your name to our submission, and share your reasons that you want gun law reform, so that we can show there is broad public support for the proposed changes and further regulation. Our submission is based on recommendations that were made by firearms researchers from the Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington.

Scott Kuggeleijn clearly demonstrated a lack of respect for women during his rape trials, and has failed to express any concerns over his behaviour since. He was found not guilty, in cases which many New Zealanders watched via the media in absolute horror. How many times do women have to say no to sex, before we believe them? When Scott Kuggeleijn is picked for New Zealand, what does this mean for cricket fans? Survivors of rape? What does this mean for women in New Zealand? And what does this mean for his team-mates? Having sportsmen represent New Zealand's top teams who show these kinds of views is embarrassing, and in 2019, just unacceptable. Other countries have stopped selecting men with similar views - India https://bit.ly/2R0z2XA - Ireland https://bit.ly/2RDwfox - England https://es.pn/2Dkq43K Our national team says something about all of us. C'mon NZ Cricket, show us that you're not part of New Zealand's sexual violence problem - and that you want the support of all New Zealanders. Other reading: Sexual Politics Now https://bit.ly/2FAxL8k The Spinoff https://bit.ly/2TYcNDy Stuff https://bit.ly/2Cqer9G

It’s difficult to know how to express the horror so many of us feel about what happened to Grace Millane. She was 21, on the trip of a lifetime, with her whole life ahead of her… and then she was gone. When women are murdered, it is a reminder that our safety is an illusion. We have some of the worst statistics for sexual violence and violence against women in the OECD. Most of that violence is at the hands of our men. For some time people at the front line with first-hand experience of violence against women, and those who support them, have been calling for the nation to do some soul-searching and to seek solution-based actions. Women going on solo adventures or meeting new people for dates are not the problem here. Men who commit acts of violence against women are. But violence is preventable if we work together at an individual, whānau, community, regional and national level. Most decent New Zealanders will be devastated by Grace’s death. The vast majority of us feel horrified for her parents and her family, and send them all our love. But we must open our eyes to the dangers facing women in our country. We must remove our rose-tinted glasses. The government and men of New Zealand must take action; for Grace and for all of the women who have lost their lives to violence in our country. Rest in peace and aroha, Grace. On behalf of all New Zealanders, we are so very, very sorry. We promise to do better as a nation. *** An open letter with the same asks has already been sent to PM Jacinda Ardern and was published in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday 15 December. See the news story here: http://bit.ly/2ULCWGU See the letter that was sent to PM Jacinda Ardern here: http://bit.ly/2zZi9qp For a list of other ways you can take action and organisations you can donate time or money to, visit www.HelpWahine.org.nz.

By mid-December the Government will have made some important decisions about next year’s Budget. First in their minds should be a focus on improving the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders - especially those who are most vulnerable. Unfortunately, by the time the Government makes their budget decisions there’s also a good chance more people will have tragically died from the use of synthetic cannabinoids. There have been 50 deaths at least over the past 18 months, and there is no chance this public health crisis will fix itself. Continuing to punish people who use drugs will only make things worse. We have a plan to turn things around. If the government makes the right funding decisions now, and follows this up by legislating for a health-based approach to drug use, we can save lives. Investing in health and treatment also makes economic sense. An economic report released in October, "Estimating the Impact of Drug Policy Options", found that if we invest $150million extra in drug-related harm reduction and treatment programmes, this would return a social benefit for New Zealand of at least $225million. Sign the petition to ask the Prime Minister to ensure that next year’s Budget reflects just how urgent this crisis is. Let’s ensure that everyone can access help when and where they need it. This petition is supported by JustSpeak, ActionStation, the New Zealand Drug Foundation, Hāpai Te Hauora, the Needle Exchange and Te Rau Matatini. We’ll be doing more work together to ensure the government treats drug use as a health and not a criminal issue in the lead up to election 2020.

We believe that in a fair and democratic society all members should have the right to vote, and people living in prisons are part of our society. They are valued members of communities and families. To take away their right to vote is an unfair disenfranchisement We all expect that people in prison have the opportunity to heal and learn so they can contribute to a thriving society when they return to their communities. By not allowing people to vote while in prison, we are removing their ability to invest in and contribute to society and our democratic process. It's cruel and counter-productive. When Parliament changed the law in 2010 they used voting rights as a form of punishment, and this breaches the Bill of Rights. As New Zealanders we seek fairness and community. If we reinstate voting rights for people serving time in prison, it means that come next election time, thousands more people would be able to participate in our democracy, and put their ballot in the box as an investment in their - and our - futures. We believe a thriving society requires the voices of all it's people in order to make decisions that elevate everyone. By including everyone's voices we can have a truly representative democracy.

The final terms of reference for the Royal Commission are about to be announced. The Royal Commission has been set up initially to investigate survivors abused in state care up until 1999. We support those survivors and want them to have justice. But we know this would exclude the large group who were abused in the care of other institutions, especially churches, and survivors after this date. These people went through the same experience and deserve justice too. We have many survivors in New Zealand that were abused by members of their church. The abusers have been hidden and protected by the churches, while the survivors have had to deal with the fall out of their childhood abuse. Alcohol, drugs, violence, family issues and failed relationships are common outcomes. A disproportionate number of survivors end up in prison while their abusers walk free. At the moment, these survivors' only option is to expose themselves to the further trauma by reporting their abuse to the Police or returning to the church which allowed the abuse to happen. Often nothing can be done because the burden of proof is so high. It has been suggested that churches could run their own inquiry. This would be impossible. Survivors would have to return to the institutions where they were abused and traumatised. Churches have a history of protecting abusers at the expense of victims. The Royal Commission was set up so state abuse survivors had a safe place to report their abuse and seek justice. We want the same for other survivors of institutional abuse. The Royal Commission can also use its power to hold institutions to account and recommend changes to prevent future abuse. An inclusive inquiry will give the opportunity to prevent future abuse in NZ institutions. This is supported by the network of survivors of abuse in church based institutions, and their supporters. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NZfaithbasedsurvivornetwok/ Church's failure 'serious' https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/churchs-failure-serious Inquiry into abuse in state care https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/inquiry-abuse-state-care

Let's Listen to the Experts New Zealand’s EEO Commissioner Jackie Blue, recently recommended a Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s Family Court, a call that was repeated by the United Nations CEDAW Committee following a review of New Zealand’s response to the human rights of women. Minister Andrew Little however, in a unilateral decision announced on the day the CEDAW recommendation was released, stated that New Zealand would NOT hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry, but would instead continue with the proposed review of the 2014 Family Court reforms. We strongly believe that New Zealand needs to follow the UN’s recommendation. Allowing the Family Court to continue to function in the way that it has, constitutes state funded abuse, resulting in serious violations of the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of women and children who have experienced violence and abuse. CEDAW commented: ‘The Committee is concerned about the apparent crisis within the Family Courts system, reflected in mistreatment of women, particularly women victims of domestic violence’. We Urgently Need A Royal Commission To Clean Up The Family Court Our violence and abuse statistics are shameful. The Family Court is an integral part of the system that responds to violence and abuse. It needs to respond safely in these cases, and it is not. The Backbone Collective's five reports produced over the last 18 months have highlighted that there are systemic failures where women and children are being marginalised in the NZ Family Court, and these failures are supported by a culture that condones violence. It is pertinent that only four hours before CEDAW’s recommendations were released, Judge Connell, a Hamilton Judge, was quoted by The NZ Herald. His comments were shocking and disturbing and provide an example of the thinking we experience from those working in the Family Court. “Often dads who indulge in violence are not necessarily bad fathers and, in fact, they do have a bond with their child... And as soon as you start putting people inside and remanding in custody you're breaking that bond. And that damages children badly." We know first-hand what is wrong with the current system. Our children suffer under orders of the Family Court. We suffer and are repeatedly endangered by the Family Court system. It is not safe for us to speak out individually, but The Backbone Collective has surveyed hundreds of New Zealand women who have experienced violence and abuse who used the Family Court, and their findings are detailed in their reports available online. Shocking detail about the unsafe practices and decisions coming out from the court has been revealed – abused women and children feeling controlled, frightened, terrorised, put down, silenced and punished for speaking out about the abuse in the Family Court. Women described the Family Court as having an enormous and negative impact on their finances, and their physical and mental health. Why is it that the New Zealand Government have known about what is happening in the Family Court for many years, but are continuing to choose to do nothing effective, thereby neglecting its duty of care to protect women and children from harm? What's Wrong With Andrew Little's Plan To Just Have a Review We know, as indeed does CEDAW, that the proposed review of the Family Court reforms of 2014 will go nowhere near deep enough to expose what has been happening. New Zealand’s system of government requires that an inquiry into the operation and culture of the Family Court simply cannot be done by a Ministerial Review such as the one the Government is about to announce. Only a Public Inquiry or a Royal Commission can do this. There must be powers to subpoena witnesses, interview judges and other court officials, and review case files, decisions and orders. This cannot be achieved under the Governments proposed review. The proposed Review of the Family Court is focused on the legislative reforms made in 2014, but the problems women are telling Backbone about, have been happening for many years before the 2014 reforms. Furthermore, only a Public Inquiry or a Royal Commission can provide a safe way for women and children who have experienced violence and abuse, to make submissions, and to give evidence of their experiences in the Family Court without fear of negative repercussions. Why Our Request is Urgent There is urgency in our petition as the likelihood of punishment for speaking out about the Family Court is now becoming more formalised - there is a Reform Bill currently before parliament seeking to strengthen contempt of court legislation, which will make it even easier to punish those who critique the court or the judiciary, with the possibility of a jail sentence. Things need to get better – not worse. Let’s Do This It is abhorrent that with each day that passes, while our government chooses to ignore the recommendation of the UN to undertake a Royal Commission of Inquiry, more and more women and children in New Zealand are abused by the system that is supposed to make them safer. You can read more about CEDAW's recommendations https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW%2fC%2fNZL%2fCO%2f8&Lang=en and The Backbone Collective reports https://www.backbone.org.nz/reports/

The DHBs have been asked by the Nurses Union NZNO for more money for more nursing staff to safely staff their (the DHB) workplaces (DHB workplaces are public hospitals), for 14 years, and each year since 2004, the DHBs have failed to provide money for more nursing staff to make their workplaces safe for the patients and the nursing staff. When DHB workplaces are unsafely staffed the patients do not receive the care that they require. Essential monitoring of a deteriorating patient gets missed by the nurse because they have too many patients to safely care for, pain medication gets missed, nurses become exhausted and fail to take their meal breaks which compounds an already unsafe situation, and sentinel events (near misses, and serious injury and death to patients due to unsafe staffing) start to occur. However as the DHB hasn't committed to putting Care Capacity Demand Management into place which is NZNO Safe Staffing request, as advocated for by NZNO, the instances of Unsafe Staffing in DHB workplaces are neither recorded nor audited. So NZNO, NZNO Nursing members, DHBs, or the Safe Staffing Healthy Workplaces Unit have no idea how many instances of care rationing have lead to sentinel events for patients being cared for in DHB workplaces. The DHBs have a conflict of interest and at NZNO nurse wage negotiation times, pit one essential requirement of nurses demanding a pay rise versus the nurses essential requirement for more staffing to safely care for our patients. The District Health Boards honour neither requirement, because it is in the District Health Board's interest to save money. This is a conflict of interest and it makes a mockery of the District Health Board acting as a "Good Faith" bargaining partner. This is the possibility of corruption in a government department, and is not acting in “Good Faith” as an employer. We ask that the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation divest all District Health Boards from New Zealand Nursing Organisations 'safe staffing' agreement. Make the 'safe staffing' agreement between New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Ministry Of Health, and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. The DHB needs to bargain in good faith on the wages and pay increases for its employees. The DHB could then be held accountable to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment regarding honouring the government mandate of providing a safe DHB workplace for the staff and patients. Ensure that care capacity demand management requirements are provided for and achieved in the DHB workplace, and are advised upon and enforced by NZNO. Funding for Safe Staffing would be the only responsibility of the Ministry of Health to avoid future conflicts of interest, and regulated by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, and be audited, administered, enforced and staffed by NZNO in the DHB workplace every shift. It is important that an effective government department such as the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, which is bound by the Health and Safety Act 2015, can regulate, administer and enforce laws that protect the patients and staff who work in DHB workplaces. Nursing and Allied Health Staff work in DHB workplaces and provide care for Patients, in the workplace that the DHB provides. The DHB is obliged under the Health and Safety Act 2015 to provide all requirements in their workplaces, to meet Health and Safety standards which include Safe Staffing, specific nurse to patient ratios depending on acuity/comorbidity that are enforced by New Zealand Nurses Organisation 24/7 on site staff who monitor, record, audit, communicate and find staff for unsafely staffed DHB workplaces. NZNO would advise, regulate, enforce, administer and provide staff to monitor DHB workplaces and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment compliance with safe staffing. There would always be a NZNO staff member available within DHB workplaces 24/7 to monitor compliance of the DHB workplace's nurse to patient ratios and reporting, recording, and enabling provision of one or multiple nursing staff members to work should that be required. Having a stronger and more responsive government Ministry in place will make accountability for safer staffing greater, will minimise care rationing by nurses to patients, and will decrease length of hospital stay for patients, it will provide for better care to the patient and more effective nursing care within a shorter time frame, and will diminish the incidence of serious sentinel events (serious and fatal harm caused to patients due to unsafely staffed DHB workplaces). It will also allow the DHB to act as a bargaining employer of Good Faith, and will restore some transparency, integrity and accountability to the DHB's reputation to deliver upon wage negotiation pay rises for Nursing staff. http://nursingnzme2.wpengine.com/right-staffing-happier-staff-finds-ccdm-research/ http://nursingreview.co.nz/right-nurse-right-place-and-right-time/ http://nursingreview.co.nz/safe-staffing-and-nursing-strikes-a-brief-history/ https://www.nzno.org.nz/get_involved/campaigns/care_point/what_is_ccdm https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/opinion/2018/07/duncan-garner-irony-nurses-finally-get-safe-staffing-levels-during-strike.html