Over 50,000 New Zealanders live with the mental distress of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) therapy provides the skills needed to break free from OCD, whereas other kinds of therapy are ineffective. It is frustrating and wrong that ERP therapy is very difficult to access in the public health system (1). Those who can afford to do so turn to the private sector. Many people living with OCD can’t afford private therapy. The Disability Allowance is nowhere near enough to cover the cost of a course of weekly treatment. Those who do manage to gather enough money will struggle to find a psychologist or psychotherapist who has expertise in ERP and is accepting new clients. People remain trapped in an exhausting cycle of unwanted scary thoughts (obsessions), fear, doubt and anxiety, and time-consuming routines (compulsions). Everyday activities such as going to school or work, sharing a meal and driving a car can become impossible. People often get exhausted, and more problems develop - relationship breakdown, unemployment, depression, substance use, self-harm and thoughts of suicide. We call on the The House of Representatives and on the Cross-Party Mental Health and Addiction Well-being Group to support the 50,000 New Zealanders who live with OCD, by ensuring timely and equitable access to effective therapy via training to expand the workforce capable of delivering ERP therapy, both in primary and secondary care.

We, the undersigned residents of the Hauraki rohe and the Thames-Coromandel community, call on the Thames-Coromandel District Council and the Waikato Regional Council to pass the following motion:  MOTION:  A CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE AND PERMANENT CEASEFIRE IN GAZA TCDC/ WRC call on the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade to: • call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza • call for immediate international humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza • provide humanitarian aid to Gaza • condemn all acts of violence and terror against civilians • call for the immediate return of all hostages, Israeli and Palestinian • recognise the State of Palestine as a sovereign state And add the following to their procurement policies: TCDC/ WRC will comply with UN resolution 2334, and will not contract with the list of companies identified by the UN Human Rights Council as involved in building or maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements.

We are calling on the Government to address the inadequacies in our failing health system. There is a lack of action and a need for a bipartisan approach to healthcare and to address the state of staffing issues. This petition seeks to address the failing state of our hospital infrastructure, and the need for the Government to build facilities that are fit for purpose. The public needs transparency, information and engagement regarding investigations and reports on these issues. ACTION 1: Ensure that all hospitals in New Zealand are properly staffed and resourced to meet the needs of their communities, now and into the future.   ACTION 2: Those hospitals that need rebuilding, such as Nelson Hospital, are rebuilt to meet the needs of the local community, now and into the future. ACTION 3: Publicly release all independent and internal reports into care at Nelson Hospital as well as all reports into healthcare provision in New Zealand, to provide full transparency to the public on issues of care within hospitals and the healthcare system.

Dear House of Representatives In the 2017 general election, Labour committed, and the other coalition partners stated their intention, to restoring student allowance eligibility for postgraduates. We're calling on the House of Representatives to recommend to the Government that it keeps its promise and gives us a commitment that the postgraduate allowance will be restored before the 2020 election. Sincerely, The Students of Aotearoa New Zealand

Make Aotearoa New Zealand safer for everyone, especially women, by urgently adding stalking to the 1961 Crimes Act. UPDATE! 20 May: 80 groups and individuals in business, politics, law, entertainment, media and academia – including representatives of women, migrants, workers and researchers – have signed an open letter urging the government to make stalking illegal. 

Kia ora Vice Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas, I recently became aware of Massey University’s funding agreement with Chinese company iFlytek. As you are no doubt aware, this company has been tied to the ongoing appalling human rights abuses of the Uyghur people by the Chinese Government. In the face of the continued systemic oppression of the Uyghur people which is alarming the world, it is no longer justifiable for Massey to continue this funding agreement with iFlytek. I emplore you to consider not only the ethical violations involved in this partnership, but the moral imperative to do what we can to signal our opposition as New Zealanders to this horrific treatment of millions of human beings. I ask you to end the partnership with iFlytek as soon as possible, and to be part of the right side of history.

Dear Simon Power (CEO, TVNZ), New Zealanders demand better from our public broadcaster. We demand that TVNZ pull the FBoy Island NZ show immediately. Why? Because it normalises and champions predatory and dangerous sexual behaviour that harms people, particularly young people. In July this year, Project Gender released our research results on the state of online dating and sex in Aotearoa. We ran a nationwide survey and heard from over 830 New Zealanders about their experiences with people they had met on a dating app. Many of the results were concerning, in particular: - 30% - nearly one third - of the people we heard from had been choked/suffocated during consensual sex in the past 12 months - This rose to 43% when we looked just at those aged under 30 - Slightly under half (47%) of those that had been choked/suffocated said it happened without their consent at least once Let’s talk a bit more about what our research told us about consent during sex. 29% of those who had been on dates in the past 12 months had been pressured into doing something sexual they weren’t comfortable with. Most commonly, this occurred by the other person: “Wearing you down by repeatedly asking you to do it” “Making promises about the future of your relationship” “Suggesting that you’re boring i.e. “vanilla”, prudish” “Being unhappy and moody unless you agreed to do it” We have shared Project Gender’s research with sexual violence advocates and researchers, and together we’re working (most of us pro bono) to try and address the psychological and physical safety risks that these results highlight. Part of the solution, we all agree, is consent law reform and education about what healthy, positive sexual activity looks like, which especially targets our rangatahi. Your decision, as our state broadcaster, to air in the coming weeks a reality TV show called FBoy Island NZ is not only disappointing, it is dangerous. In your show, 20 young men vie for the attention of three women who must decide if they are “nice guys” or “Fboys”, meaning men who act as if they’re entitled to sexual encounters and who often use manipulation in order to have sex with women. Not to put too fine a point on it, you’re essentially gamifying predatory sexual behaviour. Unsurprisingly, an abuser has been found among the line up of FBoys who made it through the auditions: the Herald on Sunday just broke the news that one of the men who was going to star in the show “appeared in court last year charged with suffocating a woman he admitted to police he lured to his home because she was drunk and he hoped to have sex with her”.

We the undersigned ask you to withdraw plans to extend the Martha open pit mine under Waihi.

Join our call asking the House of Representatives to ensure the Ministry for Disabled people is led and run by disabled people, to ensure disabled people are in leadership roles and their rights are upheld. Nothing about us without us!

Dear Minister, please implement the Plan to Fix Renting and its 36 recommendations that will make life better for renters. Everyone deserves a home that is safe, healthy, affordable and stable, and the ability to stand up for our rights. People who rent should be no exception. Please make this a reality by reforming New Zealand’s renting laws and putting this Plan into action.