Successful Campaigns

I want to give a massive mihi to all those who are continuing to mount the pressure on our elected officials to stand up and condemn the blatant genocide we have all been witnessing for at least the last 9 weeks, but which has been occurring for 75 years. Kia haha, kia māia, kia manawanui. Keep up the pressure and do not relent - they underestimate the power of the people. Whilst we had indications that the petition would be able to be added to the agenda at the final public hui of the year, December 14th, those verbal assurances were not honoured by those who uttered them. Instead, the petition has to be validated by governance, which must be done within 60 days or 2 meeting cycles depending on what comes first. Once validated and accepted, the petition will be added to the agenda and the public/petitioners should be invited to speak. We do intend to speak to council should the petition make it to an agenda, and bring up their utter failure on not honouring the critical nature of this issue and limiting their humanity to the bounds of ‘council policy’. We will update you in due course. BUT, THIS IS NOT THE END. I want to issue another call to action for you all. A suggestion of various actions you can and should take to make sure the pressure does not let up this holiday season. Continue to email and message Mayor Paula Southgate ([email protected]) and remind her that a private statement is not the same as a statement from HCC and does not mean much when her power is so much more - and reference the hypocrisy of all HCC did for Ukraine in 2022. Comment on HCC and elected officials instagram and FB posts with “Free Palestine”, “HCC must stand against genocide” etc. Let them know we’re judging them. Do steps 1 and 2 for our national government officials too! Keep an eye on local events, rallies, and vigils and SHARE and show up if you can. Presence matters. BOYCOTT AND CANCEL - https://boycott.thewitness.news/ https://bdsmovement.net/ Continue to talk about the issue with everyone, and keep sharing. Keep signing and sharing other petitions. Again, thank you for all you do/are doing. Keep up the pressure, we owe Palestine endurance. Mai te ara, ki te moana, Free Palestine. Ngā mihi, E

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

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.

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

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!

Food wastage is a global problem that has lasting effects on the surrounding physical and cultural environment. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, it is estimated that approximately 571,000 tonnes of food waste are dumped in landfills every year. The flow-on effects are seen in soil and water contamination, and the release of greenhouse gases from landfills, which contributes to climate change. In the Thames-Coromandel district, 60.9% of kerbside rubbish bags are food and organic waste (food/kitchen waste makes up 52.4%, garden and other organic waste is 8.5%). Thames Coromandel District Council’s (TCDC) solid waste contract is up for renewal shortly. The current contract with Smart Environmental finishes in October 2023, and a new contract needs to be available for tender no later than October 2022. The new contract is likely to run for the next 10 years, until 2033. This is a window of opportunity within the Council’s waste management planning, to prevent further food waste from going to landfill, and implement other measures that transform waste into resources. We need to make sure that this contract is part of the solution, and does not continue to send food and organic waste to landfill, when it can otherwise be transformed into resources. The Council is required to consult with the community on this contract. To avoid filling up our landfills unnecessarily with food waste, the Thames Food Waste Minimisation Group (TFWG), together with the Seagull Centre Trust and Whangamatā Resource Recovery Trust, are calling on TCDC to: 1. Subsidise home-scale food waste solutions such as worm farms or compost bins, as has been done in Taupō. 2. Implement a kerbside food waste collection and composting scheme, alongside existing rubbish and recycling schemes. This is already taking place in Ruapehu, Hamilton, Tauranga, Christchurch, Auckland, Timaru. 3. Provide free support (e.g. waste audit and a professional advisor ) to businesses that commit to reducing their food waste, as has been done in Taupō. 4. Develop and deliver an education campaign for households and businesses to maximise the use of the previous initiatives, and promote ideas for food waste minimisation (eg. better planning, use of leftovers, sharing excess, composting). 5. Adopt more ambitious waste minimisation goals in the next Long Term Plan (LTP), ensuring sufficient funding is allocated to attain the above initiatives. TFWG is made of Thames residents that came together a couple of years ago. Our group is made of representatives from the Seagull Centre Trust, Transition Town Thames, and passionate residents. Our vision is that Thames is taking innovative action in whole community food waste reduction, which will help to reduce emissions, conserve resources and increase food security. To further support this campaign, please answer our 5 min survey here - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDst-0bRmUiI1guyj3tmbQlKX8P7czhiJPktQXKcWAj6Lvww/viewform?usp=sf_link THIS SURVEY IS NOW COMPLETED AND HAS BEEN DELIVERED TO COUNCIL.

We negotiated an increase on the morning of our strike. The company have committed to a Living Wage by May 2019.

The petition got nearly 1000 signatures in a short time, and while that doesn’t sound like a lot, it’s now clear that along with all the other people, around the world, your voice was heard! As of the 1st of March Facebook has “add[ed] suicide-prevention tools directly into Facebook Live that will give users watching a live video the option to reach out to the person directly as well as report the video to Facebook. In addition, Facebook will provide resources to the person reporting the live video including the ability to contact a help line immediately.”

We won! 'Power of the people prompts Timaru penguin protection turn around' https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/101804193/power-of-the-people-prompts-timaru-penguin-protection-turn-around

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