To effectively tackle crime in Aotearoa, it is crucial to address its key drivers. This includes poverty and inequality, inadequate mental health support, poor educational outcomes, and other social issues. By doing so, we can ensure that everyone has access to the resources and services they need to thrive. However, for many years, politicians have upheld a criminal justice system that primarily focuses on imprisoning people, disproportionately affecting working-class, Māori, and ethnic minority communities. Turuki! Turuki!, the final report by Te Uepū Hāpai I te Ora - The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group, makes 12 recommendations to transform Aotearoa’s justice system. It envisions a community-led system that addresses the social causes of harm, helps to heal people who have been harmed, is grounded in principles of restorative and transformative justice, and honours Te Tiriti O Waitangi. We are calling on the Government to implement all 12 recommendations of the Turuki! Turuki! report. The recommendations are: 1. Establish a cross-party parliamentary accord for transformative justice that ensures a long-term commitment to change, monitoring mechanisms, and a clear plan forward for incoming governments. 2. Establish a Mana Ōrite (equal power) governance model under which Māori and Crown agencies share in justice sector decision-making power and authority. Ensure that tikanga Māori and te ao Māori values are at the heart of the justice system. 3. Prioritise investment in community-led transformative justice. Transfer investment towards social spending to help communities respond to social issues. 4. Adopt a whole-of-government approach to justice, creating a common vision, values and coordination across agencies to meaningfully address the social drivers of crime. 5. Ensure victims have access to an independent advocate, therapeutic and financial support, and that their rights in criminal justice decision-making processes are strengthened. 6. Give communities greater resources and power to meet the needs of all those impacted by the justice system. Direct resources towards iwi, hapū, community-led, whānau and children-centred organisations to adequately provide all that is needed to restore the wellbeing of people in contact with the justice system. 7. Address poverty and social deprivation. Increase support for parents and whānau and challenge attitudes and behaviour around family violence. 8. Challenge racism in the justice system and society with diverse recruitment, effective training, school programmes, media campaigns and law reforms. 9. Address access to culturally informed trauma recovery and mental health services. Ensure mental health and drug use services and systems are equipped to assist people with trauma or other underlying factors impacting people’s mental health and quality of life. 10. Strengthen regulation of alcohol. Legalise and regulate personal use of cannabis and consider this for all drugs. Provide more funding for drug harm prevention, education and treatment. Change drug legislation to a health-based approach and build up resources and services for drug harm prevention. 11. Significantly increase investment in rehabilitation. Expand rehabilitation access for all prisoners, including those on remand and serving short sentences. Gradually replace most prisons with community-based habilitation centres. Strengthen wrap-around reintegration services. Provide people with the support they need when coming out of prison. 12. Redesign criminal investigations and court procedures to be consistent with transformative justice values and principles. This means ensuring everyone is treated with dignity, respect and compassion. Introduce interim reforms, including reviewing youth, specialist and therapeutic courts and apply improvements across the court system. You can read the full Turuki! Turuki! report here: https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/turuki-turuki.pdf

We ask for the government to implement compulsory sexual consent education for first-year students at tertiary instutions.

We ask you, the members of the Justice Select Committee to oppose the Protection for First Responders and Correction Officers Bill and work to provide solutions that prevent first responders from being harmed in the first place. Many of the people this Bill will affect will be people suffering from extreme trauma, addiction, mental illness and mental distress. Punitive, revenge based policies do not help to address violent crime. Many people who commit these crimes are not safe, stable, or in a sound mind at the time that the crime occurs. The Protection for First Responders and Police officers Bill will not succeed in keeping our brave frontline staff safe, and instead will only punish vulnerable people who need help, increasing our prison population in the process. Our hope is that parliament will not proceed with this bill, but rather will redirect its energy into providing solutions that will mitigate the risk that our First Responders and Prison Officers face, with the goal of focusing on prevention, rather than punishment. Your signature will be delivered together with others as a joint submission to the Justice Select Committee.

People in Aotearoa want to see a fairer future where everyone has the resources they need to build the lives they want for themselves and their families. We’re calling on you to take these seven steps to unlock people and whānau from the constraints of poverty: 1. Increase core benefit levels to the standard of liveable incomes 2. Raise the minimum wage to the living wage 3. Increase the Disability Allowance 4. Overhaul relationship rules 5. Remove sanctions 6. Wipe debt owed to the Ministry of Social Development 7. Improve supplementary assistance and urgent grants

Wayne Brown needs to reconsider the options available and provide a fair budget that is adequately researched. A cost benefit analysis of any cuts to community services should be provided within consultation documents, as well as a clear understanding by the council of exactly what initiatives and programmes will be impacted. Council must explore options to increase revenue alongside carefully executed budget cuts. We urge Mayor Brown to meet with community leaders to discuss a range of alternative options.

Aotearoa should be a place in which every child’s needs are being met. A country where children are not punished for the systemic inequalities inflicted upon them. Our young people deserve equal opportunities. They deserve to grow up in a society where they are empowered to build good lives for themselves and given the essential support they need to thrive. This is why we are saddened to hear of the Government's plan to reestablish the youth offender boot camps [2].  Research has shown the ineffectiveness of Youth offender boot camps and the effects they will disproportionately have on marginalised communities, creating further harm [1]. Youth offender boot camps are a band-aid approach that completely ignores the systemic roots of harm. We cannot continue to punish children for the failings of society. We are asking the Government NOT to reestablish youth offender boot camps.

Kia Ora Te Whanau, We need funding to provide professional kapa haka tutors in our schools. Not only do students need reliable and trained kapa haka tutors. But our talented kapa haka experts need a career pathway and a financially viable career. Please support this proposal for the funding of two full-time tutors allocated between 10 (ish) kura (schools), or Kāhui Ako, throughout Aotearoa. These professionals would work in teams and be of diverse genders (especially for larger schools and schools with older students). In addition, we must have specific, financially viable, and effective training courses (which include a teaching component) developed with tertiary institutions. We have talented people, so let's offer them a viable career and a way forward through honoring kapa haka as the taonga it is! For further support please refer to Ka Hikitia outcomes especially Ta Tangata, Te Kanorautanga, Te Tuakiritanga and Te Rangatira Tanga.

We call upon the responsible Ministries and their respective Ministers to decline Application FTA229 and refer it to the standard Resource Management Act (RMA) consent process, where robust environmental assessment, public participation, and mana whenua engagement are properly upheld. Submitted on 3 May 2024, the application to build a 250-berth marina is fundamentally flawed and fails to meet key eligibility criteria required for referral and approval through the Fast-Track process. It also breaches legal, environmental, and cultural requirements under both the Fast-Track Approvals Act and the Resource Management Act (RMA). It further ignores matters critical to our community, our vulnerable environment, our cultural landscapes and our way of life in the Eastern Bay of Islands. The proposed Waipiro Bay Marina development is based on a flawed and misleading economic assessment. The application inflates projected demand and misrepresents existing data. Currently, Northland is home to nine marinas with a combined total of 1,575 berths. An additional marina is under construction in Whangārei, which will initially provide space for 117 vessels, with spaces still available. Also, according to NRC data, 46 berths are currently vacant and available across Northland, including 20 at the nearby Ōpua Marina-just a 49–56-minute drive from Waipiro Bay. Many of these berths remain vacant throughout the year and are being offered at discounted rates due to persistently lower demand than previously anticipated, which is a clear regional trend the proposal fails to acknowledge. In addition to marina availability, Waipiro Bay already accommodates 62 moorings, with neighbouring Parekura Bay holding a further 69. These have been introduced incrementally over time, allowing the local community and natural environment to adapt without overwhelming visual or ecological disruption. By contrast, the proposed 250-berth marina would nearly triple the current number of vessels in the area—from 131 to 381—an increase of over 80%. This would result in a sudden and dramatic escalation in boat traffic and density, significantly altering the visual landscape and placing immense pressure on the marine ecosystem. The adverse environmental consequences—particularly to biodiversity, water quality, and the ecological balance of the inlet—would be immediate and long-lasting. Critically, the application also bypasses public consultation, Māori landowners of whenua Māori around the proposed development site and inlet, denying local residents and mana whenua the opportunity to meaningfully participate in decisions about the future of this coastal taonga. It disregards Māori rights and interests protected under Section 7 of the Fast-Track Approvals Act, including obligations relating to Treaty settlements and recognised customary rights. Furthermore, the proposal fails to meet the criteria outlined in Section 22 of the Fast-Track referral criteria of the Act, which require projects to demonstrate clear and significant national or regional benefits and alignment with strategic priorities, such as support for primary industries (Section 22 (2) (v)). Notably, the proposed marina site is located within an aquaculture exclusion zone—where aquaculture operations are not permitted—placing it in direct conflict with established regional planning provisions.  We call for this proposal to be declined under the Fast-Track process and instead referred to the standard Resource Management Act (RMA) consent pathway, where robust environmental scrutiny, public participation, and mana whenua engagement are guaranteed. The proposed development does not address local iwi and hapū concerns and does not consider the potential impacts on local hapū and Iwi in accordance with the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act (MACA). If Application FTA229 is referred by the Minister to an expert panel under Schedule 2 of the Fast-Track Approvals Act and subsequently approved, the Government risks breaching multiple legal and constitutional obligations. These include statutory duties under the Resource Management Act, particularly those relating to environmental protections, planning consistency, and public participation (Section 6 (a, b, e & f), Sections 12 & 17). It would also contravene key provisions of the Fast-Track Approvals Act itself—specifically Section 7, which upholds Māori rights, Treaty settlements, and recognised customary interests, and Section 22, which requires that projects demonstrate clear, significant, and regionally or nationally beneficial outcomes aligned with strategic priorities. Furthermore, proceeding with this application in its current form would be inconsistent with the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, including active partnership, meaningful participation, and protection of our taonga. It would override existing regional planning instruments—such as aquaculture exclusion zones—without proper due process, setting a dangerous precedent for coastal development and undermining the integrity of New Zealand’s environmental and planning framework.

We, the people of Vailoa, Palauli are coming together to contest the sale of the land and property and demand its return to the village of Vailoa, Palauli. 🌏 Background of the "Lands" in Contest - Vailoa, Palauli Vailoa village located in the district of Palauli in Savaii Island - Samoa. It is the birth ground of Afu Aau, holds one of the oldest historical sites in the Pacific "Pulemelei". This land has been contested and fought over in a series of court cases between the current landowner Nelson Properties Limited and the people of Vailoa, Palauli village. 1872 - Land was illegally sold to one Frank Wilson, then to Moors then to Nelsons. Many Court cases that had developed between the Nelsons and the people of Vailoa, Palauli, outcome Vailoa, Palauli lost and Nelson now has full ownership of these properties. Purpose of this Petition These properties are now for Sale under the current owners' Nelson Properties Limited in Samoa http://www.nelsonpropertieslimited.com . These lands are our heritage and identity, the lands of our ancestors. We seek help from our people, here and aboard, to use this platform to hear our voices and make our concerns VALID. To make the lives of our children and their children VALID, to make the lives of our ancestors VALID, to make the pursuit of our people who had fought and failed still VALID. These lands are our faasinomaga, they are part of who we are. We, the people of Vailoa, Palauli are coming together to CONTEST THE SALE OF THE PROPERTY AND DEMAND ITS RETURN TO THE VILLAGE OF VAILOA, PALAULI. What can you do to help this cause? Sign the Petition. Make your stance with the people of Vailoa Palauli in pursuit to STOP the sale of their lands and for the Nelson Properties Limited to return these lands to the people of Vailoa, Palauli. Finally we ask also the Nelson Properties Limited to do the honourable thing, if you represent the true fa'asamoa and the true respect of the Samoan culture, please return these lands to its people - the people of Vailoa, Palauli

We call on all those who aspire to govern our country to have the courage to make the big changes needed NOW to build a peaceful, just and innovative society. One that will help us survive climate chaos and overseas instability, leaving no one behind.