To find a way to reinstate the health funding commitment of over 30 years to Te Hā o Hine-ahu-one Palmerston North Women’s Health Collective at the same level (as a minimum), that will soon be lost due to a recent decision by the MidCentral District Health Board.

Dear Minister Hipkins, As changes to the Teaching Council’s certification process come into effect on February 1, 2021, the damage to teachers becomes a reality. We, the undersigned, urge you to intervene to stop this harm. We ask you to: 1. Reverse the fees increases that came into effect on February 1st 2021 and develop a fair funding model for the Teaching Council The fees are increasing by more than 100 percent. They are blanket fees which hit our most vulnerable teachers hardest – beginning teachers, part-time teachers, relief teachers, itinerant music teachers, and teachers who have financial commitments to their whānau and communities. 2. Remove the requirement for annual certification The Teaching Council has also announced that teachers will need to be re-certified every year rather than every three years. This is a low-trust model that creates unnecessary workload for principals and teachers. 3. Change the Teaching Council legislation so that it focusses on fulfilling its core functions efficiently We agree that teachers should be registered and held to high professional standards. However, the Teaching Council has expanded its remit into areas of professional development and leadership. As a result, teachers are required to pay increased fees for services they neither requested nor desire. Teachers are also experiencing frustratingly long delays in having their registration and/or certification fulfilled. Confirmation of registration/certification is in some cases taking months to arrive; an issue which is becoming increasingly nerve-wracking for teachers who are still waiting for the certification as the year begins. They cannot legally be employed without it. Changing the legislation to limit the Teaching Council to its core functions is a matter of fairness. If teachers must pay for their own registration and certification, they should not therefore be required to cover the costs of any and all activities that the Teaching Council undertakes.

This Government has put our country on the wrong track. It’s time to send a signal that their time is up.  ✅ Sign the petition.  ✅ Check you’re registered to vote by the 25th of October here.  ✅ Support one friend or whānau member to get registered to vote now. You can find your electorate for the 2026 election here.

We ask that the Whangarei District Council reject the Zodiac Holdings Limited application to construct and operate a mineral water bottling plant on Lot 1 DP 482474, at 649 Mangakahia Road, Whangarei. We oppose any risk from commercial operations that threatens the pristine aquifer.

We are asking that the House of Representatives urgently stop the National Library from sending overseas published books from its collection to the Philippines, require it to publicly consult about the best way of preserving, managing and offering these books to the public. We believe this has been decided without enough consideration, and that these books are of universal interest and are a historical part of the National Library of New Zealand. Most of the Overseas Published Books Collection, featuring over 600,000 books from many countries, will soon leave our country, to go to the Philippines where they may be digitized by Internet Archive. The Library has already disposed of many of these overseas published books and we believe none will ever come back again.

Tēnā koutou Political Party Leaders, We are writing to you because we are concerned about the Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill which is currently proceeding before parliament. We represent a collective of organisations who are committed to serving, caring for and advocating for children and young people. Like the vast majority of New Zealanders, we want a more just, more inclusive Aotearoa. We want a society where our children and young people are cared for, loved, and provided with their basic needs. We want people within our communities to feel that they belong, to feel connected, to feel that their voices are heard and that they matter. When people cause harm in our community, we want a justice system which honours the voices of those who have been harmed, and provides healing, restoration, and reconciliation, both for those who have been harmed, and for those who have caused harm. As a collective of organisations filled with people who have dedicated their lives to advocating for the rights of children and young people, we have been saddened and frustrated to watch as political expediency has overridden care and consideration for our children. Instead of laying out the evidence, educating the public on the root causes that can impact on a child becoming involved in crime, and outlining evidence-based solutions, political leaders on all sides of the aisle have contributed to building a “tough on crime” narrative which has created an environment of fear in our communities and obscured real solutions that will keep our communities safe. The result of such rhetoric is clear within the Ram Raid Bill. This Bill violates the human rights of children, it is out of step with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and it fails to address the root causes that contribute to children causing harm in our communities. As you will be aware, the evidence consistently shows that young people and children who cause harm in our community are some of our most structurally marginalized and vulnerable.  These are children who have themselves first been harmed, who have experienced trauma, suffered abuse, been living in poverty, experiencing homelessness, housing insecurity, mental illness, addiction, are struggling with undiagnosed disabilities, and whose whānau are dealing with the impact of social exclusion and generational trauma. We are calling for you, as leaders, to lead. Withdraw your support from this bill and instead back evidence-based solutions that will serve our communities.  We also urge you to commit to real, sustainable reform by following the advice of Te Uepū Hāpai i Te Ora, the Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group, in order to ensure that justice reform is depoliticized through the development of a cross-party parliamentary accord for transformative justice. The wellbeing of our communities and the human rights of our children are too important to be continually used as political footballs each and every election cycle. We deserve a justice system that is backed by evidence, upholds the human rights of all our tamariki and our whānau, and contributes to building a more just and more inclusive Aotearoa. We appreciate you taking the time to read our letter and we look forward to meeting with each of you as a rōpū in the near future.  Ngā mihi,  Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand  Ara Taiohi, peak body for youth development in Aotearoa  Auckland Action Against Poverty  Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW)  Barnardos Aotearoa  Canterbury Howard League for Penal Reform  Community Law Centres o Aotearoa    Celia Lashlie Trust   Dr. Enys Delmage, Consultant in Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry   Dr. Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown   Dr. Sue Bagshaw  Disabled Persons Assembly NZ  FASD-CAN  Family for Every Child  JustSpeak  Korowai Tupu, professional association for Youth Work in Aotearoa   Kick Back  Key Assets New Zealand  Mana 2022 Inc.  NZCCSS  Pillars Ka Pou Whakahou  Peace Action Wellington  People Against Prisons Aotearoa  START  Save the Children  Talitonu Te Kaha  Te Tahi Youth  Trauma-informed Educators NZ   The Collaborative Trust   Youth Hub Christchurch  VOYCE - Whakarongo-Mai  Wellington Howard League  YouthLaw Aotearoa  Youth Arts New Zealand   Zeal

Stopping and preventing forced marriage is a community responsibility. We want members of the community, civil society organisations, marriage celebrants, educational institutions, government agencies and religious organisations and leaders to pledge a commitment to ending forced and under-age marriage in communities living in Aotearoa. If someone is at risk or in a forced marriage, take action and refuse to be a by-stander. You can support them to get help so they can acess safety by contacting relevant agencies and organisations like Shakti (0800 SHAKTI). If you are marriage celebrant, make sure to screen the marriage for free and informed consent before conducting a ceremony. By signing this pledge you or your organisation commits to supporting the end of forced marriage in New Zealand.

As the world is beginning to realise that our current lifestyle isn’t quite the best for our own health and for our environment, microfiber pollution has become an untalked about issue currently happening on our planet, where more than 5.35 trillion microfiber particles shedded from synthetic clothing is in our oceans. How do they get there? Our washing machines! Microfibers being shed from synthetic garments are able to make their way from washing machines, travel through drains and end up in waterways. By signing this pledge, we would like people to support action on eradicating microfibers from New Zealand to protect our rivers, oceans and environment.

We, Kyle MacDonald - Psychotherapist and Mike King - Suicide Prevention Ambassador, ask Facebook to urgently review its Community Standards and their implementation, to no longer allow the posting of videos or links to videos, of people completing suicide. Recent events have shown that Facebook are unwilling to block such videos or links and we are concerned that the viewing of such videos, apart from being horrifying and disturbing, can increase the likelihood of others taking their own lives.

We call upon the Health Select Committee to replace section 13C to delete the complicated process for designating a safe area, and instead add language to create safe areas around all places where abortions are provided from assent.