Launch Pad for August
Use the timeline and resources below to write to the government and express your lived experience, views and values.
This is a republished newsletter I make for my local Green Party members. I hope you find it useful!
Here is this month's list of items open for submission and the resources to do so, where I've been able to locate them. I’ll add to it as the month progresses.
If you have 15 mins to spare, the priority in my opinion to submit against are the Employment Relations Amendment (by the 13th), the Online Casino Gambling Bill (17th), and the Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment (18th).
Do what you can; this is a record of how much we are being bombarded with as much as it is a call to action.
Manaaki whenua, manaaki tangata, haere whakamua!
Rimu Bhooi (they/them)
Timeline for August
Central Government
Wednesday 13th August 2 pm
🚩 Employment Relations Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Green Party MP Ricardo Menendez March in the House focused on:
Opposition to legislation that affects Uber drivers' employment status, arguing it favours corporations over workers.
Criticism of "anti-union provisions" that create barriers to collective agreements.
Concerns about the precarious working conditions of gig workers, specifically Uber drivers.
The Party opposes the Bill.
Watch this video by the Young Workers Resource Centre laying out the future under this Bill
Skim read this fact sheet by the Public Service Association.
Use the Green Party submission guide.
Extra: NZ Council of Trade Unions' explainer and submission guide. The Public Service Association's statement and submission.
Thursday 14th August
⭐️ Legal Services (Distribution of Special Fund) Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Green Party MP Dr. Lawrence Xu-Nan in the House expressed concerns about the bill's purpose and necessity. His main points included:
The special fund currently supports Community Law Centres of Aotearoa (CLCA), which includes 21 geographical centres and three specialised offices focusing on disability, youth, and family issues.
Community law centres provide crucial services, particularly in family law and employment law, serving underrepresented communities.
He expressed concern that broadening the scope of the special fund might redirect funding away from CLCA.
The special fund is not part of the regular government budget process, which raises concerns about potential redistribution of resources.
CLCA has recently shown a 14% increase in access to justice, including success with kaupapa Māori initiatives in Tairāwhiti.
The Green Party cannot support the bill without further scrutiny through the select committee process.
Sunday 17th August 11:59 pm
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Hear what Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle in the House:
The Green Party's stance is that gambling legislation should focus on harm elimination rather than profit.
They had concerns about online gambling's accessibility and higher rates of problem gambling.
They noted the disproportionate impact of gambling on Māori and Pasifika communities, framing it as a Te Tiriti issue.
Criticism that the bill prioritises tax revenue over harm reduction.
They made a call for stronger measures, like banning gambling advertising
The Party supports the bill to select committee despite its limitations, with the intention to strengthen it.
Understand the why behind the NO! from Hāpai Te Hauora.
It expands access to online gambling by allowing 15 new licences and lowering the minimum gambling age to 18, while physical casinos require people to be 20+. It places the responsibility on the individuals to self-manage their gambling, instead of putting clear limits on things like spending, advertising, or game design.
There are no system-level precautions – no caps on gambling expenditure or bans on addictive game features like rapid or continuous play. The Bill also prioritises protecting Lotto’s revenue rather than confronting the bigger picture of gambling harm. Weak regulations like this risk normalising online gambling, making it appear as harmless entertainment rather than a harmful product.
In short, this Bill is about enabling industry growth and profit, not protecting people.
Read these one-liners for your submission from Hāpai Te Hauora.
Use the submission builder from Hāpai Te Hauora.
💫 Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga Ministry of Housing and Urban Development & Manatū Mō Te Taiao Ministry for the Environment's Going for Housing Growth Pillar 1 proposals
Recommend: [Rimu will add to this if they find out more].
Monday 18th August 1 pm
🚩 Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Hear what Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon criticised the government for:
Rushing amendments without evidence or proper consultations.
Turning away from Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Waitangi Tribunal recommendations.
Removing the health charter (Te Mauri o Rongo) that supported the workforce.
Eliminating specialised health strategies for Māori, Pacific, disabled people, women, rural communities, and mental health in favour of a single health strategy.
Reducing iwi-Māori partnership boards to merely advisory roles.
Neglecting inclusion and equity for vulnerable communities.
The Party opposes the Bill.
Read this explainer on the Bill and common FAQs from Dr Luke Fitzmaurice Brown, a Māori academic and Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Wellington.
Use the Green Party's submission guide.
Thursday 21st August 11:59 pm
Recommend: changes to the details for implementation.
Hear what Green Party MP Dr. Lawrence Xu-Nan said in the House:
He saw the Bill as aiming to simplify regulations by introducing a single supervisor for AML/CFT obligations instead of three.
He acknowledged the need for updated AML/CFT regulations, but raised questions about implementation details that the Green Party hopes to explore during the select committee process.
He outlined:
concerns about potential risks if financial regulations are loosened,
questions about the impact on banking accessibility, particularly for rural communities,
and concerns about moving regulations from primary to secondary legislation.
Wednesday 27th August 11:59 pm
🚩 Local Government (System Improvements) Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Read the bit below from the Spinoff Article 'Councils under pressure as government pushes ‘back to basics’ agenda'
The Bill will remove councils’ legal responsibility to consider the “four wellbeings” – social, cultural, environmental and economic – when making decisions. Instead, councils will be legally obliged to prioritise so-called “core services” like water, roads and rubbish.
Opening the conference, the prime minister pitched the changes as a return to basics, saying ratepayers wanted councils to “[prioritise] pipes over vanity projects”. But among the mayors gathered in Christchurch, frustration was palpable at the expectation that they somehow, as Newsroom’s David Williams put it, “achieve the triumvirate: upgrading infrastructure, holding down rates, and keeping debt in check”. Clutha mayor Bryan Cadogan said ministers refuse to admit they’re demanding the impossible. “The Government knows it, we know it, but we just keep on getting this.”
Councils fed up with policy whiplash
That frustration is compounded by the sense that councils are forever adapting to the whims of central government. The four wellbeings, for instance, have now been added and removed from the Local Government Act four times since 2002 – inserted twice by Labour governments, stripped out by National. “Every time we have an election, there’s a flip-flop,” said LGNZ president Sam Broughton. As Shanti Mathias reports this morning in The Spinoff, he and others also pushed back at the government’s suggestion that councils are blowing money on “nice-to-haves” like bike lanes and “fancy toilets”. In his own district of Selwyn, Broughton said, 80% of spending goes to key infrastructure like pipes and roads, with the rest funding services that communities still see as essential.
2. Hear what Green Party MP for Wellington Central, Tamatha Paul, said in the House:
Criticised that the bill misunderstands why rates are high, which she attributed to historical under-investment in infrastructure.
Has concerns that the bill's definition of "core services" excludes important initiatives like climate change preparation and safe walking/cycling infrastructure.
She also criticised the change in the reference from "avoidance or mitigation of natural hazards" to simply "emergency management," and defended public facilities like 24/7 accessible toilets that serve vulnerable populations, as well as Wellington's convention centre, as being less costly than those in Auckland and Christchurch.
Argued that councils need more funding and financing options rather than restrictions, and criticised the government's inconsistent approach to local governance.
The Party opposes the Bill.
Extra:
Local context from the Waikato Times article on the Bill 'Parks, libraries and pools safe under local law changes'
Hamilton City Council Mayor Paula Southgate "warned against narrowing the focus too far. "I’d be sad to see a focus on the wider functions of local government be swept away. What the council spends on the community stuff is a blip on the radar – but that’s the stuff that lights up local communities. Our biggest spend by far is on core infrastructure."
Article on the Bill by Gareth Hughes for The Post: 'Wellbeing is at the heart of what local govt does, law change or not.'
Thursday 28th August 1 pm
Recommend: changes to accessibility and oppose the repeal of Part 4 of the Legislation Act 2019.
Hear what Green Party MP Dr. Lawrence Xu-Nan said in the House:
Supported updates to the legislation website being developed by the Parliamentary Counsel's Office.
Improvements are needed for accessing and tracking secondary legislation in a standardised format.
The Party supports sending the bill to the select committee, though they have some concerns:
Questions about accessibility for disabled communities
Concerns about the repeal of Part 4 of the Legislation Act 2019
Sunday 31st August 11:59 pm
🚩 Public Service Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Hear what Green Party MP Francisco Hernandez said in the House:
The Bill seems to target diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the Public Service.
There's no evidence that the Public Service wasn't already hiring on merit.
He argued the bill will weaken pay equity frameworks and lead to a less representative Public Service.
He expressed concern that the bill moves New Zealand toward an "American-style politicized Public Service."
He criticised the bill for weakening the "spirit of service to the public" requirement, and the current Government's approach to the Public Service, mentioning job cuts and service impacts.
The Party opposes the bill, which they characterise as a "distraction" and "culture war nonsense."
Monday 1st September 2 pm
🚩 Education and Training (Early Childhood Education Reform) Amendment Bill
Recommend: Oppose the Bill.
Hear what Green Party MP and education spokesperson Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan had to say in the House:
He criticised the Bill for focusing on business interests rather than children's education. He pointed out that the relevant Cabinet papers rarely mention "children," "teacher," or "education" but emphasise "reducing cost to business." He highlighted several issues in the ECE sector:
High fees for parents despite "20 hours free" offerings.
Excessive teacher-child ratios lead to overworked teachers.
Recent $22 million loss for ECE teachers.
He argued that the bill's approach of establishing a director adds bureaucracy ("yellow tape") without addressing fundamental problems. He questioned the Minister's, David Seymour, willingness to listen to public feedback, citing a previous case where 96% of submitters opposed ECE network management removal, but the Minister proceeded anyway.
He outlined that the Green Party believe ECE reform should happen at the system and funding levels rather than introducing a director role. The Green solution focuses on ending ECE privatisation, the core issue.
The Party oppose the bill but looks forward to the select committee process.
2. Read the section below from this article from RNZ 'The small regulatory shift that could have big impacts on mokopuna Māori'
"Kirikiriroa-based kaiako and NZEI Te Riu Roa Early Childhood representative Zane McCarthy said that while his centre will likely opt to keep the bicultural aspects, he worried some centres would drop them altogether. "There are bad actors. There are bad apples and poor employers who will quash it. It's basically colonisation again."
McCarthy was particularly concerned about the private centres, which he said made up around 75 per cent of the sector.
"A lot of that 75 percent have profit-driven motives. When you've got a teacher workforce who are crying out for professional development to learn about te ao Māori, they're needing support in order to uphold Te Tiriti and mokopuna Māori. But that comes at a cost, and so when you've got profit-driven motives, they're going to look to scrap that aspect in order to make the bottom line look better."
He said there have been big benefits of the cultural requirements in the past.
"Whānau have learned, have grown and learnt alongside their tamariki, when they're coming home with new kupu, waiata, purākau, that they're learning from them, and they're becoming even bolder in their own culture and identity as well."
3. Read the sections below from this article from Newsroom's 'New early childhood education law aims to help get parents back in labour force. David Seymour has introduced legislation that seeks to entrench the recommendations from his broad-ranging and contentious early childhood education regulatory review.'
"Green Party early childhood education spokesperson Benjamin Doyle said they found it "extremely concerning" that the bill sought to refocus the purpose of early childhood education towards parents re-entering the workforce.
"That signals to us that this piece of legislation is part of a suite of that classic neoliberal creep towards privatisation, towards deregulation, and away from education as a public good."
...
Doyle also criticised the timeframe with which the legislation had been pulled together, given the importance of education as a public good.
“The Education and Training Act is a crucial piece of legislation in Aotearoa, it is our primary piece of legislation around education. So changes to it should be really thoroughly scrutinised and really well understood by the public.”
...
Officials also noted there was a lack of consultation with key stakeholders on the policy proposals, including service providers, parents, and Mãori. No consultation had been undertaken on the proposed law change, other than with the Ministry for Regulation, the Education Review Office and the Public Service Commission.
“These limitations and constraints increase the risk of policy failure and creates litigation risks for this work.” Officials said they advised Seymour of these risks.
The Greens’ Doyle said this official advice suggested Seymour had pre-determined the outcomes, adding that they believed Seymour had done a similar thing with pay parity for early childhood education teachers."
Something positive
Here’s some good Green mahi you can get involved in:
‼️ Just six Government MPs are needed to pass the Green Party's Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill.
How-To: A toolkit for lobbying your Member of Parliament on the Bill
Getting Local Candidates On Side: A Guide for Advocating for Palestine in Local Body Elections
💛 Support these Green Party Petitions: