Bring in the big changes that Aotearoa needs right now!

Why? Aotearoa is at a tipping point. Glaring inequalities, people struggling to pay bills and find secure housing. Whenua and awa polluted, forests, seas and wildlife struggling and no real action on climate. A festering legacy of colonial injustice. A country drifting towards entanglement in overseas wars instead of tackling these crises at home.
But all round the motu people are working to create a different future, one where we care for one another and Te Taiao. We are creating a new world within the shell of the old.
Support their mahi. Add these demands to your party’s 2023 election platform:

The changes we need (NB this list is not exhaustive!

1) Commit to constitutional transformation and doing democracy better
Immediately start the process for the national conversations that Matike Mai recommended in 2016
Trial Te Tiriti-based Citizens’ Assemblies to deal with key questions affecting all of us
2) End poverty, disparity and income insecurity
Expand universal basic services - starting with:
Free dental care
Free public transport
Free early childhood education
Immediately implement all the recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group
End the ethnic and gender pay gap - support the recommendations of the Human Rights Commission

3) Solve the housing crisis
Rent control
A comprehensive capital gains tax
Higher rates/tax on empty houses
Adequate funding for a state house building programme and for iwi and community housing

4) Tax the richest to ensure income security for everyone
Wealth tax, capital gains tax, financial transactions tax, remove GST

5) Real environmental action
Immediately support farmers transitioning to restorative farming focused on food security and reducing cattle herds, and phase out artificial fertilisers and imported stock food
End coal, oil, and gas extraction and prospecting on land and sea by 2027, and reduce fossil fuel use by at least 20% per year from 2024 without offsets or expanding biofuels
Ban all seabed mining and bottom trawling

6) Jobs that support everybody’s welfare, not endless growth in corporate
profits, starting with -
A four-day working week with no loss of pay
A Ministry of Green Works creating jobs, homes and infrastructure that will prepare Aotearoa for a low emissions future

7) Justice reforms as recommended by the Safe & Effective Justice Advisory Group

8) Oppose militarisation of the Pacific
An Aotearoa with a non-militarised foreign policy in alliance with other nations working to create a strong global voice for peace and climate action, especially the nations of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa

Sign the petition! Spread the word!
What else you can do -
You are invited to the Tapatahi Launch event on Sunday 25 June. This will be a hybrid online and in person event with hubs in Tāmaki Makaurau, Pōneke and Ōtautahi, where we’ll have activities and a panel of speakers. Learn more at www.tapatahi.nz
Political parties – include these changes in your policies and election platform this year
NGOs, unions, schools, workplaces - join Tapatahi - Coalition for a People’s Aotearoa and let’s share our campaigns, resources, experience and skills.
We are stronger together.
Individuals, whānau, friendship groups – use Tapatahi for inspiration and connection. We’re spreading and connecting, like the hidden mycelium linking the roots of the trees in the forest!

Tapatahi - Coalition for a People’s Aotearoa
This petition has been created by Tapatahi - Coalition for a People’s Aotearoa, an alliance of groups working in many different ways for transformational change in how we live with one another and Te Taiao.
We want to help build a strong network of groups supporting one another’s campaigns and mahi. We are stronger together in our diversity.
Support the organisations and campaigns behind these demands:
Many of these demands have been drawn from recommendations and reports and campaigns by a variety of groups focused on specific issues. We tautoko their work, some of which can be found below.
Matike Mai Report: https://nwo.org.nz/resources/report-of-matike-mai-aotearoa-the-independent-working-group-on-constitutional-transformation/
Welfare Advisory Group Report: www.weag.govt.nz/weag-report/
Fares Free Coalition: https://freefares.nz/
NZCTU Discussion Document: https://www.buildingabetterfuture.org.nz/ (4-day working week, Ministry of Green Works, free early childhood education)
Wellbeing Economy Alliance https://weall.org/hub/newzealand and Degrowth Aotearoa NZ https://www.degrowth.nz/ on economic transformation
Human Right Commission pay gap recommendations: https://76v71b.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Pacific-Pay-Gap-Inquiry-Executive-Summary.pdf
Ecu Action tax proposal: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2206/S00076/ecuaction-proposal-for-a-fairer-tax-system.htm
Renters United recommendations: https://rentersunited.org.nz/plan/
Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group: https://natlib.govt.nz/records/42614970?=items
Dental for All (unions and health workers): petition Https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/make-dental-care-free-for-all-nz
Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigns on farming and bottom trawling https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/campaign/regenerative-farming-revolution/
Kiwis Against Seabed Mining https://www.kasm.org.nz/
Coal Action Network Aotearoa’s campaigns on emission reduction: https://coalaction.org.nz/
Peace Movement Aotearoa network http://www.apc.org.nz/pma/