Successful Campaigns

We're elated that Wellington City Councillors passed a more ambitious Spatial Plan today that goes above and beyond the original Draft Spatial Plan. We credit the 1,300+ residents of Wellington who made their voices heard and signed our petition demanding action. A real win! https://twitter.com/CityforPeopleNZ/status/1407997850638684164

Manawatu District Council met this morning, 20 May. The motion to revoke the previous decision was passed, and the follow up motion to establish a Maori ward now, in time for the 2022 election, was also passed, 8-3. Hooray!

May 2021 After months of campaigning we welcome the news that New Zealand will support temporarily relaxing patents on COVID 19 vaccines. New Zealand joins the vast majority of member states at the World Trade Organisation as supporters of a proposal that seeks to ramp up the production of vaccines and ease distribution in the Global South.

1 Feb 2021: The Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced she will introduce new legislation that will remove the ability to petition and block Māori wards on Councils who wish to have them. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/changes-to-fundamentally-unfair-process-to-make-way-for-mori-wards The legislation will be retrospective to allow the councils which have voted for Māori wards in the last few months to not have to face referendums. It will give other councils around Aotearoa until May to decide whether to introduce a Māori ward in time for the council elections in 2022. From next year our councils will have better Māori representation, make better decisions with better outcomes, and stronger connections to local hapū. Our hearts are with each and every person who has pulled it into reality.

This petition was delivered in July 2020: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/122241314/30000strong-petition-to-make-matariki-a-public-holiday-moves-onto-next-stage. In September the Labour Party joined the Green and Māori parties in confirming they would make Matariki a public holiday if in government. Of course, it is not only this petition that led to Labour’s announcement. Many Māori over many years have been working for Matariki to be given the recognition it deserves. The first public holiday for Matariki will be 24 June 2022! https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/future-matariki-public-holiday-dates-revealed

The petition was delivered to Parliament on 21 March 2019, five days after being launched - later the same day the Government announced all military style automatic weapons will be banned. Watch: https://www.facebook.com/ActionStationNZ/videos/337544046965351/ Report from the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee: https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/SCR_87811/e39e119082aad70fc8b775b2320ff7cbcae993ef

Porirua city council has officially declared a climate emergency!! We would like to say a big thank you to Ana Coffey and Josh Trlin for their mahi to get our petition into council, the Extinction Rebellion team and other signatories who attended the petition reading last night but most importantly... you!! Without you signing the petition Porirua City Council would have never declared a climate emergency and for that we are thankful. However this is only the start, we need to make sure we hold Porirua City Council accountable and to let them know we will not settle until there are ambitious policies, initiatives and deadlines so we can create real climate action in our city. Thank you to every single person who signed the petition, your voices were all heard by the council, tēnā koutou katoa. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1906/S00705/porirua-moves-with-the-changing-world.htm

Wellington City Council declares climate emergency, Stuff, 20 June 2019 https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/113633374/wellington-city-council-declares-climate-emergency-but-councillors-remain-divided

The Government has announced Mates and Dates, a healthy relationships course for secondary school students, will be rolled out nationwide with funding of $18 million provided to make sure it expands to reach 180,000 students, up from 37,000 young people. Last year over 5,000 of us got behind Lauren and Ruby’s call for better sex education in schools, especially around consent. They asked that Mates and Dates be introduced into all high schools in New Zealand. The programme consists of five hour-long sessions on healthy relationships, consent, gender and identity, what to do when things go wrong, and how to keep safe. Read more https://bit.ly/2oq8Ppo

Thank you for helping to make a difference. You were amongst the 32,337 who demanded the unfreezing of Radio New Zealand’s funding, and on 25 May the ice thawed. A month after we delivered our petition to Parliament (together with Jo Bond's Fund RNZ petition - see https://medium.com/actionstation/32-337-demand-government-unfreeze-radio-new-zealand-funding-2b310ed3271d), the Government responded with a $2.85m funding boost in the Budget 2017. People power has prevailed in this case. The quality independent journalism that RNZ delivers is crucial to maintain our democracy. The Government has finally done something to recognise this. But, it doesn’t go as far as we’d hoped. Dr Peter Thompson (Coalition for Better Broadcasting Chair) recently calculated that RNZ is now underfunded by $14m a year. When you compare this boost to the $60 million per year the Government has committed to attracting Hollywood Producers, it does make you wonder about priorities. While we celebrate the $2.85m boost there’s still work to do to ensure RNZ thrives beyond the next four years.