Successful Campaigns

Thank you so much for signing the petition 'Include churches in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historical abuse'. As you are probably aware by now, our petition was influential, alongside the efforts of many other people, in getting the government to include faith-based institutions in the Inquiry.

Thank you for helping to make a difference. On the 25th of May I flew down to Wellington to deliver our petition to the Minister. It was because of your support, and the support of more than 9000 others, that Minister Anne Tolley agreed to meet with me. Together we showed her this issue cannot be ignored. When I asked her what could be done to help people and families facing the impossible choice between homelessness or unmanageable debt over the coming winter months, the Minister acknowledged the urgency of the situation and told us she would look into possible solutions. Just a few hours after our meeting, the Minister’s office called to tell us that changes to the policy will be brought forward from September to 1 July. These changes will mean that the first week of emergency housing would be covered by a special needs grant rather than a loan. A week is not going to be long enough if there is nowhere to go once that week is up, so the Government still has a lot of work to be done to make sure there are enough houses for people to move into.

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.

The application for a new off-licence (bottle store) at 509 Mt Albert Rd, Three Kings, has been WITHDRAWN by the applicant, meaning it won't be going ahead. The information provided notes the withdrawal is because of the large number of community objections - well done everyone for speaking up and making sure Super Liquor and the applying business owner knew Three Kings wasn't ok with another bottle store in our community. This is a huge win, thank you so much for your support!

19 September: The annual refugee quota will lift from 1000 to 1500 by 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced! https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/107203279/Refugee-quota-lifting-to-1500-by-2020

Auckland Transport have announced the 191 will start in late February 2019. Thank you so much for signing our petition and supporting the campaign - we are sure that the strong community support shown by the petition really helped AT to fulfill past promises to do this at long last.

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

This petition has been delivered to Parliament. Fingers crossed!! We'll keep you updated.

NZ Rugby has been talking behind-the-scenes, since our petition began, with Le ART and their mentor Johnny Viliamu. Clearly they were as captivated by the young women's talent as we were. NZ Rugby is excited to announce that sweet-sounding trio Anastasia Sirila, Rosetta Lopa & Tiresa Foma'i, Le ART, will sing at a domestic competition Final this year. Their music mentor Jonny Viliamu has said, "It's perfect for them & they are so excited." I'm excited too. So while it's not an All Blacks test, Le ART are really happy with the outcome. I reckon they'll blow everyone away, and we'll see them on bigger stages. My final note is to you and the ActionStation community - thanks for supporting this petition and for backing those young women. It won't be the last time you hear about them! Ross

Today (2 July 2018) the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins has announced the limit on student-loan borrowing will be lifted to 10EFTS!