Māori remain woefully underrepresented in local government around the country. Having a representative elected directly by those on the Māori electoral roll ensures that a specifically Māori perspective is present in the council chamber. Given the ever-increasing legislative importance of recognising and incorporating such perspectives in all public decision-making, that can only lead to better council processes. Māori knowledge and perspectives are hugely beneficial when considering land use, conservation practises, climate crisis responses, local business, tourism, and the protection of vulnerable communities, for example.

We ask Waka Kotahi to hear our dismay that years of promises about a Skypath have come to nothing at all. We ask Waka Kotahi to understand that it would be irresponsible to wait even longer, when we can use the available space to give fast access for climate friendly transport now. We ask Waka Kotahi to give us the chance to walk, cycle, and wheel across the Auckland Harbour Bridge and show what is possible. We ask Waka Kotahi to understand that cross harbour ferry services are swamped at peak hours with bikes and e-scooters, and are not suitable to cope with future demand as micro-mobility continues to grow. We ask Waka Kotahi to look across the city and recognise how many Aucklanders are turning to bikes as the better, healthier, more responsible transport option - and how many more would if they had a safe connection across Te Waitematā. We ask Waka Kotahi to look upon the map of existing and planned cycling routes that will soon connect the region, and consider how critical a link the Harbour Bridge is to unlocking our emission and modeshift targets. We ask Waka Kotahi to recognise that delivering this critical link is a matter of urgency, due to climate catastrophe. It’s time to give Aucklanders more choice for affordable and climate friendly transport. We ask Waka Kotahi to see the shape of the future and open the Bridge for a Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland for everyone.

The current issue with recruiting and the retention of qualified and professional kapa haka tutors in schools is a serious concern… Tamariki love kapa haka! The number of students who are participating and passionate about kapa haka is growing all the time! The student's knowledge of Te Reo me ona Tikanga Māori and confidence grow as they learn waiata, haka and other skills. We have seen improvements in the attendance and engagement of many students through a good quality kapa haka group. But finding the right people to fulfil that teaching role is a major and ongoing struggle. The Problem for Kura... As a national education priority (NEG 9 and NEG 10), the ability to find affordable, suitable and committed tutors shouldn't be so difficult. Schools are scrambling around every year to find professional tutors. On more than one occasion we have had people commit to tutoring our groups and then pull out in week one, term one! The anxiety this induces when you have up to 140 kids sitting in a hall ready to learn kapa haka is intense! The solution to this has been employing independent professional tutors. However, they are expensive, especially for smaller schools. Furthermore, the pull between priority curriculum areas and funding Māori performing arts is difficult for principals and boards of trustees. Funding is often prioritised to literacy and numeracy, science and technology, PE and LEOTC (NEG 5). The responsibility for funding Māori Performing Arts is a choice that should not be on the heads of individual principals and boards. As we are bound by Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Article Two), to protect this taonga and this should be done at a national level. Tutors are hard to find and relying on whānau to do the teaching of kapa haka is neither a respectful nor a sustainable option. Once you do find a volunteer (or someone who does the job for koha) the retention of tutors is difficult, life circumstances change for volunteers, more financially viable opportunities come up, new educational opportunities arise and family commitments, at times, take precedent. Many tutors cannot commit (for free) long-term to a school program. The problem for professional tutors... To run a free-market-style business funded by schools can be difficult for kapa haka experts. Particularly in relation to supporting families and maintaining a start-up business model or in the long term. Tutors can only charge what schools can afford and need to do all the mahi of running a business, understanding finances and organsing amongst many schools. They, therefore, need to have a certain amount of energy, confidence, and know-how to take these risks to manage this effectively. This is not an easy model for many people to set-up and run long term. As stated previously, schools are left to rely on whānau who volunteer or are given koha. This often puts pressure on whānau who have their own work and family commitments. It is not respectful to ask for so much for free, in a world where money is the formal acknowledgment of value. This feels disrespectful and is disheartening, to say the least for those who are asked to give so much for so little. On top of that, some tutors may not have the teaching skills required and it can be a daunting task for a whanau member (or two) to tutor a large group of children. There is usually little or no teaching training for these people and it can be seriously challenging for them. In summary, there are few or no professional and secure career pathways for people skilled in kapa haka. We need to create a system where people can achieve success in a Māori world and then have that honored with financial stability and security in the wider community. In short, the current system is not respectful of Māori mahi or the enormous value and importance placed on kapa haka by our tamariki. The schools are doing the best they can to fill this gap, but it shouldn't be this difficult to honour our commitments to Te Reo me Ona Tikanga Māori, me, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We are calling that the taonga of kapa haka is protected through supported career pathways, that our tamariki have no obstacles to participation and that the Government and Iwi in partnership have a discussion and make a plan to implement structures for a long term tautoko of kapa haka. So join us to fight for paid professional kapa haka tutors in every school!

Fulfilling Te Tiriti o Waitangi responsibilities requires partnerships between Maori and the Crown. This forms the basis of the amendments to the Local Electoral Act 2001 which allows all local government authorities to establish Māori wards or constituencies to provide for Māori representation. A Māori ward can give Mana Whenua a rightful seat at the council table as a Te Tiriti partner. The council that represents our entire district currently does not have any Māori sitting alongside them yet they continue to make decisions for Māori. This does not provide for tino rangatiratanga. We want fair representation for all people in the Manawatū District. Matauranga Māori, Tikanga Māori - Māori knowledge, customs and perspectives are hugely beneficial in decision making when considering community care, sustainable land use, conservation practices, climate crisis responses, enterprise, economic development, tourism, and the protection of vulnerable members of society. Their inclusion at Council through Māori representatives is an expression of the active protection of taonga (Māori treasures) and leads to better kawanatanga or good governance. When engaging with Council, Iwi have always demonstrated their position and willingness to be inclusive and considerate of all members of the wider community. The councillors who voted no or wish to defer Māori wards stated a number of perspectives, but the common reason was the 2018 referendum to overturn the 2017 decision to establish Māori wards. In February, the law that enabled this referendum and others like it was thrown out by Government, as it was discriminatory & racially biased. It is therefore discriminatory & racially biased to use this referendum as an argument. In addition, that referendum had a voter turnout of 44.47%, meaning the 'majority' who voted NO to a Māori ward represents just 34% of voters in the Manawatū District. 66% of our District did not offer their opinion in that referendum. Let our Mayor and Deputy Mayor, who voted to defer on 6 May and intend to vote again to defer on 20 May, know that you want them to CHANGE THEIR VOTE! ***This petition has been set up by an individual, to gather additional support from wider constituents in support of the Iwi collective Te Kotui Reo Taumata. While this petition is not administered by Te Kotui Reo Taumata, their representatives have contributed to the content of this page. The heading photo on this page is attributed to Stuff.co.nz*** Please only sign this petition if you are a resident or on the electoral roll in the Manawatū District. Check this map to see the District Boundary https://maps.mdc.govt.nz/IntraMaps90/default.htm Media Links Scoop Iwi collective walk away from Partnership with Manawatū District Council until further notice https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2105/S00071/te-kotu Stuff https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300304206/hundreds-of-people-join-historic-march-for-mori-wards-in-manawat Waatea News Manawatū Council faces backlash https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjcyODE/Paakiwaha/Manawatu-Council-faces-Maori-backlash Waatea News Manawatu iwi give council taste of backlash https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_story_id/MjcyNzY=/Manawatu-iwi-give-council-taste-of-backlash Stuff Manawatū iwi to protest council over Māori wards decision https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300303747/manawat-iwi-to-protest-council-over-mori-wards-decision Waatea News Manawatū council vote slight on mana whenua https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjcyNTY/Paakiwaha/Manawatu-council-vote-slight-on-mana-whenua Scoop Manawatū District Council Defers Māori Ward Decision Until 2023 https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2105/S00141/manawatu-district-council-defers-maori-ward-decision-until-2023.htm Stuff Māori Wards vote may be close as Manawatū councillors split over issue https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/300276382/mori-wards-vote-may-be-close-as-manawat-councillors-split-over-issue The Daily Blog & Scoop Manawatū District Council Must not defer Māori Wards to 2024 - Green Party https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/05/12/manawatu-district-council-must-not-defer-maori-wards-to-2024-green-party/ RNZ Hundreds protest Māori ward delay in Manawatū https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/442339/hundreds-protest-maori-ward-delay-in-manawatu Stuff Māori kicked in the guts over failed Māori ward bid in Manawatū https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300300994/mori-kicked-in-the-guts-over-failed-mori-ward-bid-in-manawat Scoop Local authorities urged no to wait for education on Māori wards https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2105/S00093/local-authorities-urged-not-to-wait-for-education-on-maori-wards.htm Stuff Māori ward in Manawatū District only pathway to an inclusive democracy https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/300303919/mori-ward-in-manawat-district-only-path-to-an-inclusive-democracy Te Ao Māori news Manawatū Council vote against Māori wards dishonours Treaty partnership - Teanau Tuiono https://www.teaomaori.news/manawatu-council-vote-against-maori-wards-dishonours-treaty-partnership-teanau-tuiono Te Ao Māori news Mayor backs down in face of hikoi protesting Māori wards delay in Manawatū Te Pāti Māori backs hikoi protesting Māori wards delay in Manawatū https://www.teaomaori.news/mayor-backs-down-face-hikoi-protesting-maori-wards-delay-manawatu Scoop Hikoi to Manawatū District Council gains momentum https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2105/S00206/hikoi-to-manawatu-district-council-gains-momentum.htm Te Karere Response to Manawatū District Council’s deferral of Māori wards https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1t6SBlHxOg Waatea news Manawatū chokes on Māori ward decision https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjcyNDc/Paakiwaha/Manawat%C5%AB-chokes-on-M%C4%81ori-ward-decision

For oppression to be classed as genocide, only one aspect of the definition would have to be fulfilled. What is happening to the Uyghur people is the entire definition of genocide. Uyghurs are suffering: • Intrusive surveillance. • Mass detention (millions put in prison). • Political indoctrination (brainwashing). • Forced cultural assimilation (their culture and language banned.) • Mass forced labour (slavery, including being sold in lots of 50-100 people.) • Organ harvesting. • Children removed and put in orphanages. • Mass birth control and sterilisation. • Rape and torture. • Death. • Unable to travel or leave. • Unable to communicate with friend or family overseas. New Zealand is a signatory of the Genocide Convention. It is important for countries around the world to fulfill our role in humanity to prevent and stop horrific abuses of human rights and death. New Zealand as a country wants to maintain peace and uphold human rights. We say Never Again. Our elected representatives must say "Never Again" to the horrific killing of a race of people. Source: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml Source: https://newlinesinstitute.org/uyghurs/the-uyghur-genocide-an-examination-of-chinas-breaches-of-the-1948-genocide-convention/

The current emblem was introduced in 1946 and represents the colonial history of our city as a settler military post in the 19th century. It does not align with the Treaty of Waitangi and Maaori representation in our current emblem is non-existent. Our emblem does not depict any partnerships and the crown is the main overpowering feature in the emblem. It does not hold any in-depth cultural, metaphorical or traditional meanings and is an emblem that was introduced almost 100 years ago!!! Kirikiriroa means 'long strip of cultivated land' and it represents the abundance of people who shared, took care, and lived off the land before colonisation. Gradually, like our city name or street names around our city Hamilton was overpowered by European settlers who made Kirikiriroa their own. Updating our city emblem and discussing it's relevance is important because it currently represents and supports years of our city’s colonial, traumatic history where indigenous people had land taken, were oppressed, and even murdered. Some people might think something small like an emblem doesn't matter, but the history and significance behind something so small has been the meaning of life or death for many. Today, Hamilton is the youngest city in New Zealand and one of the most multicultural cities with more than 160 ethnicities. We are a vibrant young & developing city and we need an emblem that reflects this! We want an emblem that we are proud of. We want an emblem that we understand and can relate to. We want an emblem that represents maaori, our city, and our diverse multicultural population. We want our city emblem to represent 'Kirikiriroa'. We want to have an emblem that we can share with pride! Sign to call on our Council to update City Emblem! To be able to present the petition the Council requires over 150 signatures with postal addresses, to show signatories are residents. Your address will be supplied to Council but not be made public.

The following excerpt is taken from our open letter. On April 15, Stuff published a detailed case study of one woman’s treatment within New Zealand courts. This poignant story shows state power and ignorance colliding to harm a vulnerable woman: a woman who should have been able to rely on the state and the courts to understand her situation and protect her. Instead, it wrongly criminalised her, causing further harm and suffering. Mrs P was a party in Family Court proceedings. She provided a stack of evidence to the court that she had been abused by her former partner. In one of the documents she submitted in evidence, she twinked out private information that she did not want before the court. She initialled the change. In what was arguably, at worst, a misdemeanour ‘lay person’s redaction error’, the trial judge accused her of lying to the court. He appeared to take umbrage, bullying her during the trial and finding in favour of her former husband who had abused her. Not only did the trial judge disbelieve the woman had been abused, saying “I am in no doubt that she was not abused by [her ex-husband]”, he referred her to the police on the grounds of perjury. The case was prosecuted by the Crown, and Mrs P was convicted, narrowly missing a custodial sentence. Eventually the Court of Appeal overturned Mrs P’s conviction, but not before she had served a sentence of one year on home detention; been ordered to pay $400,000 in costs, resulting in bankruptcy; and lost her job as a teacher. The Government has refused compensation. The story highlights multiple occasions where the system has failed Mrs P – as a woman who suffered domestic violence, she was further harmed by the very institutions that women are urged to turn to for help. The treatment of Mrs P within both the Family Court and the District Court is a stinging indictment of the operations of our courts, and some of the judges and lawyers who operate within them. The detailed revelations about how Mrs P was treated in the Family Court are particularly significant, because such information is rarely provided for public scrutiny. Her mistreatment by the courts may seem extreme. However, core elements of this case resonate strongly with what advocates tell us about women’s and children’s experiences in the Family Court, and with what some of us know from our own practice and/or research. That is, the Family Court is currently unsafe for too many women who have experienced violence and abuse from their male partners, and for children who are subject to violence and abuse from their fathers or father-figures. In 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), as part of its four-yearly review of New Zealand, was so concerned at the treatment of women and children in the Family Court, it recommended that there be a Royal Commission of Inquiry held. In March 2021, in its midterm review of New Zealand’s progress on that recommendation, CEDAW stated that the Government’s review into the Family Court failed to address the root causes of the problems and the issues of safety for domestic violence victims who come to the Family Court. CEDAW has recommended that the New Zealand Government “take appropriate action to address the root causes of the drawbacks for women, the obstruction of justice for women and the hindrances to their safety inherent in the family court system.” And furthermore, CEDAW has recommended that the state “operate the legislative and structural changes necessary to make the family courts safe and just for women and children, in particular in situations of domestic violence.” It is not good enough for New Zealand to say it is committed to preventing family and sexual violence, and to tell our population ‘It’s Not OK’, when the very courts many women will need to turn to for protection and for care-of-children arrangements are at risk of turning on them in their time of need. We continue to be deeply troubled by stories that mothers involved in the Family Court system risk being treated as vindictive and ‘alienating’ if they disclose violence and abuse they or their children suffer. Many of us have heard from women desperate because they have been warned that if they don’t stop raising concerns related to abuse of their children, they risk losing their children. We are writing to you, Prime Minister, with the following requests, because although the most excessive misuse of power in Mrs P’s case was in the Family Court, the problems rippled out more widely, implicating the District Court, the High Court and Crown Solicitors, and with ramifications for the safety and success of New Zealand’s family violence prevention messages. These problems, therefore, need to be tackled in each of these places, but with an overview of the interconnectedness of the problems. --------------------------------------------------------------

We all celebrated to hear of the legislation being enacted that bans conversion therapy after years of campaigning by the LGTBQI+ community. However the win does not go far enough. The same underlying techniques of torture and dehumanising coercion continue to be applied to autistic children. Any legislation which is so selective as to ban only “conversion therapies” that target a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is in itself discriminatory. If a government moves to ban the mistreatment of one minority in a particular manner but neglects similar mistreatment of other minorities it is more than negligent, it is actively legitimising prejudice. If a ban were to go through with specific reference to sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression alone, it would be much like an anti-racism bill that protected black people but left all other people of colour out in the cold. Instead of acknowledging anxiety and depression as the result of the highly stressful environments and dehumanising treatments that autistic children are exposed to, many "autism professionals" prefer to treat autism as the 'problem', and then use medication as treatment. The message to autistic people is very clear: 'you are not normal and we need to fix you'. This is wrong. The University of Auckland and other institutions in New Zealand still teach ABA. In Aotearoa certified ABA practitioners continue to advertise their services for children with “compliance” problems. Many autistic people who have been subjected to ABA and similar “treatments” end up with PTSD. Multiple studies confirm that the suicide rates for autists are are more than twice (1.9 to 9.9 times) the rates found in the general population. It is so important that people, and especially parents of autistic children, start listening to the lived experience of autistic adults. Many of us are in our 50s, 60s and 70s. We all started out as autistic children, without formal diagnosis, and without intensive ABA "therapy". We have found our path in life, we've experienced decades of discrimination comparable to the level of discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people 50 years ago, and we have remained autistic throughout. Neurodivergence is at the core of creativity. Autistic people don’t play social games, instead we actively resist them. Autistic people are best understood as the agents of a well functioning cultural immune system within human society. What are conversion therapies? Conversion therapies are “normalisation” therapies rooted in the techniques of torture and dehumanising coercion developed by Ivar Lovaas and Burrhus Frederic Skinner. The same techniques that are used by ABA therapists have been named as abusive in domestic abuse prevention legislation. Dehumanising abuse of all children, including autistic children, must be made illegal. The actual results that are achieved with conversion therapy include depression, PTSD, suicidal ideation, social expectations that are toxic for autistic people, as well as environments that create sensory overload. Why do we propose to consider a ban of all forms of conversion therapy? Conversion therapy never achieves its stated goal of “normalising” LGBTQIA+ or autistic children. Instead there is overwhelming evidence that conversion therapy results in extreme levels of irreversible trauma. The autistic population is much smaller than the LGBTQIA+ community, but the intersection between the two is significant. Compared to the general population, autists are 7 to 8 times more likely to identify as LGBTQIA+. It makes perfect sense to tie legislation around the protection of LGBTQIA+ rights to the protection of the rights of autistic people. What practices would need to be considered as part of a ban? Of the many labels used “Applied Behaviour Analysis” (ABA) and "Positive Behaviour Support" (PBS) are the most common ones. It is important to focus on all “therapies” that are rooted in the techniques of torture and dehumanising coercion developed by Ivar Lovaas and Burrhus Frederic Skinner. This initiative is part of the global Ban Conversion Therapies project (https://autcollab.org/projects/ban-of-conversion-therapies/), which keeps track of all the bans of conversion therapies that are already in place and all initiatives towards bans. More background information has been compiled by the Autistic Collaboration Trust in collaboration with the autistic community in New Zealand on the following web page: https://autcollab.org/2021/03/10/banning-autistic-conversion-therapy-in-nz/.

Public broadcasting has the opportunity to do good in Aotearoa - helping us have informed kōrero about the issues that matter. Even ethical advertising can be positive for the world. Yet every evening, more than 800,000 people turn on the TV to tune into 1 News for an informative take on the day gone. But when the sports section comes up, viewers are bombarded with a dominating Mobil logo, and a message proudly declaring: “1 News Sport, brought to you by Mobil.” Make no mistake; Mobil NZ is synonymous with ExxonMobil - the international giant oil and corporate monolith. ExxonMobil has known about climate change since at least 1982.[1] Back then, their own report predicted CO2 level models that are extremely accurate to the present day. Many of ExxonMobil’s former lead scientists have testified to how Exxon management spread doubt about the dangers of climate change setting a model for other oil companies to follow.[2] One of their early chief scientists, Martin Hoffert, said “Exxon was publicly promoting views that its own scientists knew were wrong, and we knew that because we were the major group working on this.”[3] ExxonMobil knew about climate change from its own top-notch research groups - even taking sea level rise into account while building their resource-sucking, earth-polluting oil rigs - all while spending many tens of millions lying to the public and funding politicians advocating against climate action. that would affect its bottom line. Yet despite all this, TVNZ says it has “no ethical concerns” in regard to its Mobil sponsorship. That is ludicrous - if they don’t have ethical concerns with a corporation knowingly destroying the planet, committing human rights abuses, and funding climate denialism; then who do they have ethical concerns with? TVNZ has the means, and as a state funded media organisation, the responsibility, to end its contract with Mobil - whose continued and willful ignorance of the climate crisis is a slap in the face to our Pacific neighbours, who are seeing their homes and sacred graveyards destroyed by intensifying storms and sea surges - a direct consequence of criminal policy from corporates like ExxonMobil. There’s a precedent for this. In January of last year, Britain's second-biggest newspaper, The Guardian, announced an outright ban on taking money from companies that extract fossil fuels. TVNZ has the opportunity to follow in their footsteps and show Aotearoa that taking money from climate criminals in 2021 is not acceptable. In these times everyone needs to be part of change and protecting Papatūānuku. Generation Zero is calling on TVNZ as a publicly funded media organisation to end its association with fossil fuels and follow an ethical sponsorship policy. Sign on to join our call! Feel free to contact [email protected] for any questions or queries! References 1-http://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/1982-memo-to-exxon-management-about-co2-greenhouse-effect/ 2. https://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ByEvent.aspx?EventID=110126 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/opinion/exxons-climate-concealment.html?_r=0 3 https://youtu.be/Ms-vVR7o-nM

We want to convince the prime minister to change employment laws so victims can get prompt and fair justice. Only then will workplace exploitation and bullying stop. 🔥 Who are we? 🔥 UTU for Workers Union is a volunteer organisation campaigning to stop workplace exploitation and abuse. We provide representation to workers in non-unionised workplaces with employment problems. We are registered as One Union. We are an incorporated society and registered trade union. From May 2021 we will legally be renamed UTU for Workers Union.

The TikTok showed the New Zealand man punching a possum in the face, outraging animal advocates and people across New Zealand. The video shows a young possum perched on a fence with a voice saying “Hey dick, what are you doing there?” A second voice asks “Shall I smack him?” The first voice answers “Smack him.” A closed fist is then seen punching the possum hard in the face causing it to fly off the fence backwards. An audible smack can be heard. Laughter from the two individuals which aren’t shown on camera follows. Direct Animal Action believes the video is deplorable and is an act of animal cruelty. While possums are considered 'pests' in New Zealand, what is shown in the TikTok is blatant animal cruelty and is not acceptable behaviour. The fact that it is being glorified on social media makes it even more disturbing. Unfortunately possums have been demonised in New Zealand due to their legal status as pests. This has encouraged a culture in our country where cruelty towards animals classified as pests, like possums, is seen as acceptable to many New Zealanders. SPCA New Zealand say they have seen an upswing in cruelty towards animals classified as pests in recent years and that, under the law, animals may be killed humanely, but causing cruelty to an animal is against the law and in breach of the Animal Welfare Act. Direct Animal Action have reported the TikTok to SPCA New Zealand and an investigation is now underway. We are calling on the SPCA not to take this lightly because the animal involved is classified as a pest, but to take serious action under the Animal Welfare Act. We would also like the man to undertake community service at his local SPCA animal shelter, so that he can learn the importance of compassion and respect towards all animal species. People need to know that animal abuse should not be used as a tool to get more views, likes and shares on social media and that all animals are sentient, capable of pain and suffering, regardless of their legal classification.

Taking a health- and social-based approach to drug use would reduce stigma, meaning that community leaders, educators, health providers and whānau could focus more on prevention and harm reduction, while providing timely and judgement-free treatment or support. It would also mean that medicinal cannabis patients could access affordable relief without fear of prosecution. Prohibition continues to discriminate against Māori and Pasifika, who account for more than half of all cannabis convictions in Aotearoa. Convictions also fall disproportionately on young people. 2019 amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act have failed to shift these unequal outcomes in criminalisation for low-level drug offences. Kākahungia te tangata ki te aroha, kaua ki te whakawhiu - Our people need a cloak of support and care, not punishment and stigma.