Successful Campaigns

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.

July 2020: After more than 5000 people signed the petition in less than a week, Evolve backed down and withdrew unfair and unlawful contracts that would have halved ECE teachers’ pay. What’s more, the company pledged to actually pass on a 2.3% funding increase from the Government to improve teacher pay to the teachers! We will need to monitor this closely to make sure it happens... but I’m so proud of the brave teachers at Evolve who had the courage to stand up collectively with their union and win this fight — with your support. If you’d like to get updates on the campaign for fair pay for ECE teachers, join the campaign at www.ecevoice.org. Thanks! Ngā mihi Virginia Oakly ECE representative on NZEI Te Riu National Executive

Amy started the Stand Together for Social Work - Change the Registration Bill! campaign when new laws were drafted that would redefine who is or isn’t a social worker. She helped bring the social work community leaders together to draft an alternative to the bill. Social workers nationally emailed, called and visited their MPs with clear talking points. “The petition was noted by Ministers even before being presented so it clearly got attention and helped us get cut through,” says Amy. She is now “very hopeful. The bill is being redrafted with our communities supplementary order paper informing this. We are on the way to a good result.”

March 2020: This week we achieved abortion law reform, largely because of the support you and the rest of the country have shown toward reproductive rights through polls, demonstrations, lobbying efforts, and petitions like this one.

June 2020 To all supporters of the Save Playcentre petition Hopefully those of you who backed the Playcentre petition will have seen the Government announcement today of an urgent funding boost. Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin is making $3.7 million available for Playcentre Aotearoa as well as a further $500,000 to deal with our property issues. This will allow us to offset our deficit, save a lot of Playcentres from closing and means we have some certainty to plan for our future. More than 16,000 people signed the petition and I and all our Playcentre whānau are most appreciative of that support. It was really special to read all the many thoughtful comments a lot of you the took time to make. It was a great insight into why you were signing the petition and to see what Playcentre means and has meant to so many New Zealand families over the past 79 years. The overwhelming message was that Playcentre is valued and must not be lost. In my meeting with Minister Martin I was able to present many of those comments to her. Thank you again for all your support. Sean McKinley General Manager Playcentre Aotearoa

As you may have heard by now Massey University has cancelled the 'Feminism 2020' event! (Massey University cancels 'Feminism 2020' event, 16 Oct https://bit.ly/35Qqs6i) Last week we delievered our petition of 6,000 signatures to the Massey Senior Leadership Team. Being able to have a conversation with our community completely changed the way they were viewing the event and framing the discussion around this hate speech. If you want to write to Massey and thank them for eventually coming around and making the right descision (and to ask them to continue to actively show support for the trans community) you can write to acting VC Giselle Byrnes at: G.Byrnes@massey.ac.nz Thank you for signing the petition and standing with our trans community, when we stand together we can make change. 

Local iwi Ngāti Manawa have now decided not to go ahead with the water bottling project until they can guarantee the protection of the precious wai (water). https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503437&objectid=12273783

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

June 2019 - We’ve just heard that the plan by a company to build a water pipeline from Mt Aspiring National Park through a Kiwi sanctuary has stalled - the sanctuary is safe! You were one of many thousands of people who came together to preserve the home of the Haast Tokeka Kiwi. Together we protected their home and stopped a new bottled water business selling precious spring water overseas. The company, Okuru Enterprises Ltd, had permission (first given 25 years ago) to take and export 800 million litres of spring water each month from a catchment high in the mountains - right through a sanctuary for the Haast Tokoeka Kiwi. However the company's permission ran out last week and the Department of Conservation stopped considering their new application because of insufficient information. As a result of our combined people power there was constant pressure on the project, and on the politicians with the power to make decisions on the project. Okuru Enterprises still have permits from the District and Regional Councils for the water take, land use and coastal use. While there is nothing stopping the company trying to restart the project they will need to reapply for permission from the Department of Conservation all over again, and face public scrutiny each step of the way. For now the kiwi sanctuary and surrounding forest is saved! Here’s how our community made it happen it happen: 🌏 When news first broke in April 2017 we launched into action, launching a petition calling for the end of the project and save the Haast Tokoeka. 🌏 18,534 of us came together to support the call. 🌏 The petition showed public support which helped power media stories keeping attention focused on the issue. 🌏 We consulted with allies and conservation experts. 🌏 We targeted Maggie Barry, the then-Minister of Conservation to put pressure on her decisions on the project. 🌏 In August we went to Parliament to deliver it to MP Eugenie Sage - who a couple of months later became the new Minister for Conservation. ActionStation members chipped in to make it a positive, visual event. Volunteers dressed as kiwis and students from Tuia te Matangi, a bilingual Maori-English school from Nelson, stepped up to give the kaupapa awesome support. 🌏 We presented our crowdsourced submission to the politicians considering the issue sharing personal stories on why we need to save the Haast Kiwi. It included expert opinion from conservationists to the Environment Select Committee.[2] After our coordinated collective actions, it’s a win for the Haast Tokoeka Kiwi!

October 2019 A container deposit scheme trial has been announced! https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/returning-empty-bottles-refund-could-revived-v1 The Kiwi Bottle Drive team delivered our petition to Parliament on December 2nd, 2018. We handed over our petition, signed by 15,450 Kiwis (including offline signatures), to Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick with the support of her Parliamentary colleagues MP Gareth Hughes and Minister Eugenie Sage.