Open Letter to Minister Chhour 

To: Hon Karen Chhour, Minister for Children 

Kia ora Minister Chhour,  

We are writing to you today with a deep concern for the wellbeing and safety of tamariki across Aotearoa. 

Every tamaiti in Aotearoa, whether in the care of whānau or the state, deserves to grow up with safety and stability, wrapped in aroha.  

However, right now, far too many tamariki are being failed by a care system that is under-resourced, disconnected from whakapapa, and lacking a focus on preventing harm before it happens. 

Social workers are overwhelmed, facing dangerously high caseloads. Community providers are dealing with funding cuts and funding uncertainty every year. Independent oversight recommendations are constantly ignored. Far too many children in our care system are not having their fundamental rights met.  

As Minister for Children, you hold responsibility to ensure this system upholds the rights and dignity of every child in Aotearoa. 

That is why we are asking you to commit to a ‘Duty of Care’. A set of seven core promises that speak to the fundamental system change required protect tamariki, put them at the heart of government decision making and deliver a system that truly serves children. 

These duties of care are based on the voices and lived experience of care-experienced young people, whānau, community providers, Māori leaders, and the recommendations of several inquiries. They reflect the values of te Tiriti o Waitangi and the rights guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Detailed below, these duties of care  are backed by clear, achievable policy commitments: 

The seven duties of care 

1. Every child’s whānau and whakapapa must be centred 
   Tamariki Māori remain disproportionately effected in a colonial state care system. We call for legislative reform to embed whānau and hapū leadership in decisions about tamariki and to re-centre care around whakapapa guided by mana enhancing processes.
2. Every child must be free from poverty 
   Poverty is a key driver of harm. We call for bold income support reforms including a universal payment and a simplified Family Top Up scheme to ensure every child grows up with the resources they need to thrive.
3. Every child must be supported, every step of their journey
   Children often fall through the cracks of the systems designed to protect them. We call for long term investment in prevention, trauma informed care and strong transition pathways, ensuring that funding and support follows the child across government service providers at all stages of life.
4. Every child must be heard, respected, and placed at the heart of decision-making
   Tamariki are still too often excluded from the systems meant to protect them. We call for the full incorporation of the UN children’s rights into domestic legislation, safeguarded funding for independent advocacy and mandatory child impact assessments in all government decisions. 
5. Every child must be protected
   Oversight without binding recommendations is not enough. We call for strong, independent, enforceable oversight of the care system including full implementation of all 138 recommendations of the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care. 
6. Every child must have a stable, nurturing home
   Too many children face multiple care placements once in the Oranga Tamariki care system, and as such, lack the secure relationships they need. We call for a professional caregiving accreditation model, strong support for caregivers and clear accountability between the state and care providers.
7. Every child is cared for by a well-supported workforce  
   Workforce shortages, high caseloads and a lack of trauma-informed training undermine care quality. We call for equitable and fair pay, manageable workloads and targeted workforce development that prioritises community providers.

Join us. Sign below to demand a care system that finally puts children at the heart of Government decision making. 

Legislation (Definition of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill - Submission Guide

Oppose New Zealand First’s Member’s Bill!

Everyone deserves the right to be who they really are.

This Gender Definition Bill aims to change that.

The Legislation (Definition of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill amends the law to provide the rigid definitions of a woman as an “adult human biological female” and a man as an “adult human biological male”.

This Bill doesn’t protect or help anyone, it is a classic political tactic imported from overseas to target a minority community. 

Trans people aren’t a threat to anyone - one in five trans people have been threatened with violence because of their gender identity. This is a community that deserves to be safeguarded, not villainised.

The Bill has passed first reading and is now open for public submissions at Select Committee. ACT and NZ First have committed to passing this Bill at all stages, while National have not yet said whether they’ll support or oppose it.

We need your help to stop this Bill.

Make a submission to oppose this Bill and help safeguard our trans whanau.

Submissions close on Thursday 2 July 11.59pm 2026.

Why is this important?

Right now, trans people across Aotearoa are facing uncertainty about whether they will be able to continue living their lives if this Bill passes.

Losing the right to self-identify can infringe on their access to many everyday services, such as bathrooms, changing rooms and schools, as well as critical services such as women's shelters.

There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the “problem” this Bill addresses is a real issue. In fact, there is significant evidence to show that the trans community is facing persecution as a direct consequence of Government decisions.

For intersex people, this Bill will lead to even further policing of their bodies and identities.

As the Government continues their assault on people and planet, it is more important than ever that we stand behind our trans community.

Self-identification of gender has been shown to:

• respect personal dignity and autonomy, 
• improve psychological and mental health,
• facilitate access to the correct social services, and
• support practical functioning in society.

We believe that trans people have the right to be who they are, and no one should try to change that.

What you might want to say in your submission:

Tell the Select Committee that you oppose this Bill. It’s really important that you do so in your own words. You may want to talk about:

• your own personal experience with your gender identity,
• your positive experiences with trans people in everyday life,
• that we are all entitled to our own self-identification,
• that trans people are not a threat to your or anyone else’s personal safety,
• how it makes you feel to have your gender identity set in stone,
• that for intersex and non-binary people, being forced into a category is cruel and dehumanising,
• that the problems this Bill seeks to address are not real issues.

Submit on the Bill by Thursday 2 July 11.59pm 2026 

To Prime Minister Christopher Luxon,

People across Aotearoa are coming together to oppose the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill introduced by New Zealand First. 

Right now, people are worried about paying the rent, buying groceries, and what kind of future their kids will grow up in. This Bill does nothing to help with any of that. 

Instead, the Government is choosing to target trans people for political attention and public debate. A small community that already faces high levels of discrimination, abuse and harassment is being turned into a political punching bag. 

Trans people are part of our communities. They are our whānau, friends and loved ones. They deserve to live safely and openly, without politicians questioning their identities or using them to score political points. 

This bill is a classic culture war tactic that has been imported from overseas. When governments are under pressure and running out of answers, they look for someone to scapegoat and blame. It is cynical, divisive politics designed to keep people angry at each other instead of asking harder questions about inequality, poverty, housing, and the cost of living. 

New Zealanders are better than this. 

We do not need laws that make vulnerable people feel less safe. We do not need imported culture war politics designed to divide communities. And we do not need politicians treating human rights like they are up for negotiation. 

We need leadership that brings people together and focuses on the things that actually matter in people’s lives. 

To every trans, non-binary and intersex person reading this: you belong here. Your life, your identity and your safety matter. 

Aotearoa should be a place where everyone can live freely, safely and with dignity. This Bill moves us backwards. 

New Zealanders are proud of our history of looking after each other, protecting our environment, and leading the way on social reform.

Our Government can choose to pass a budget that makes life easier for everyone – where we support people and planet to thrive.

Affordable lives, healthy nature, decisions for you.

But today, Luxon’s Government chose to cut support to those who need it most, and cut away at our public services and environment to protect corporate profit.

Sign our petition today to tell the Government to go back to the drawing board on their budget.

The Green Party is calling on the Government to put planet before profit and protect our conservation land from exploitation for private economic gain. 

New Zealanders are proud of our native forests, great walks and national parks. Our wild places are unique on the planet, internationally recognised for their beauty and rich biodiversity, home to plants and animals found nowhere else on earth.  

But, at a time when 4,000 of our native species are at risk of extinction, the Luxon Government want to sell off our precious conservation land to corporations to make a quick buck. 

Right now, the Government and Minister for Conservation, Tama Potaka, are pushing through the Conservation Amendment Bill. This Bill will direct the Department of Conservation to prioritise economic opportunity on conservation land. This goes against the purpose of conservation and environmental protection, threatens our international reputation, and is inconsistent with our shared values as a country. 

Sign our petition today to oppose the Conservation Amendment Bill and keep our conservation land protected for truly environmental purposes for generations to come.

Signed the petition but want to do more? Click here for our simple submission guide.

We can power Aotearoa with our sun, wind, water and geothermal energy.

But right now, families are paying the price for decades of dependence on fossil fuels from other countries.

Every time the price of oil spikes overseas, it hits us here: at the pump, in our power bills, at the supermarket checkout.

War in the Middle East. Unpredictable global markets. A warming planet. Luxon’s government investing your taxpayer money to foster more dependency on fossil fuels. Rising prices of food, power and fuel.

These are not separate problems. They share the same cause.

We can power Aotearoa with homegrown sun, wind, water and geothermal energy.

Electrifying our homes, transport and industry would:

• cut household power bills, 
• end our dependence on unpredictable global markets, 
• build real energy security right here at home. 

A National Electrification Plan means cheaper power, warmer homes, more efficient ways to get around, and a country that works for people and the planet.

Sign and share the open letter to show your support for a National Electrification Plan.

Sign now to stop Wellington City Council cutting its climate change funding.

We are in a climate crisis and at last year’s local government election the majority of people now sitting around the Council table campaigned on promises to take action on climate change. Despite this, only five months after the election, the Council is proposing significant cuts to its climate funding. These cuts will impact plans to reduce the Council's own emissions, the roll out of walking and cycling infrastructure, the programme that makes it safer for kids to walk and ride to school and more. These sorts of initiatives are getting results; last year the city’s emissions dropped 5%. If we are going to reach our goal of being Carbon Zero by 2050, we can’t cut climate funding in 2026 - sign the petition to show you oppose WCC’s proposed cuts.

Petition begins

Kia ora Mayor Andrew Little and Councillors,

I call on you not to cut Wellington City Council’s climate change response funding in this year’s annual plan.

We are in a climate crisis. We have seen evidence of this in the deadly climate change fuelled disasters that New Zealand has already suffered this year. Most of you campaigned at last year’s election promising to reduce emissions. Now is not the time to reduce climate change funding.  

Our city has a proud history of leadership when it comes to climate change. Please continue demonstrating that leadership and scrap the proposed cuts.

Petition ends

The Greens are unlocking the door to:

1. Build Public Housing. Public housing is the best way to make sure everybody has a safe, warm home. We’ve done it before in Aotearoa, we can do it again.
2. End Homelessness. We know what the solutions are. We need a government brave enough to pump support into the community. We will pull out all the stops to make sure everybody in Aotearoa has a place they call home.
3. Fix Renters’ Rights. The government has ripped up the rights of people who rent. We are focused on making sure everyone who rents has a secure home to live in, ending no-cause evictions, stabilising rent increases, improving rental quality and making renters’ rights fairer.

Sign to show your support!

Tena kōe Your Worship, Mayor Andrew Little, 

We hope this open letter finds you well. 

We are writing to share our views on the Future Fit Pōneke Report released by the Wellington City Council on 24 November 2025. 

Wellington has experienced first-hand the impacts of the National, New Zealand First and Act’s slash and burn cuts to the public service. We have long been a proud public service city which shows up to work every day for the hardworking people of Aotearoa. 

Wellingtonians know that we cannot cut our way towards a productive modern economy, and that cuts degrade, not enhance, the capacity of the public service. The morale of public servants, including those who are now jobseekers, is extremely low and dispirited. Empty shopfronts, shuttered businesses, and tens of thousands of jobseekers are the direct result of this Government’s reckless austerity agenda. 

We share concerns outlined by the Public Service Association (PSA) about the flaws of the Future Fit Pōneke report. We agree with the PSA that the Wellington City Council provides services that other councils do not, and that Wellington City Council service an extra 22,000 people that come to the city for work that do not necessarily make up the ratepayer base of the city. 

The report suggests reducing the workforce by hundreds of employees. This could be fulfilled in a number of ways – for example, outright redundancies, or through managed vacancies. We want to emphasise that managed vacancies can be just as harmful as outright redundancies if it places the burden of increased workload on those who remain. This approach is what the Government is doing in the health system which Labour and the PSA have been opposed to for obvious reasons that we agree with. 

We also agree with their critiques about the flawed assumptions around the use of unproven technology to replace human labour. ChatGPT cannot pick litter up at a park or provide authentic human support that librarians provide – only humans can.  

 We call on you to: 

1. Publicly commit to ruling out implementing any of the outlined cuts proposed in the report. 

2. Work with the staff and the unions to improve critical services in a public-centered way. 

3. Stand up against the ongoing public service cuts that have caused so much devastation in our city. 

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with you on this issue. 

Kind regards, 
Francisco Hernandez MP, Green Spokesperson for Public Services 
Tamatha Paul, MP for Wellington Central and Julie Anne Genter, MP for Rongotai.

We already have a rail network stretching across the motu – it’s time to use it properly and bring back passenger rail.  

New Zealanders deserve a modern, efficient transport system with real choices for how they get around – whether it’s driving, taking a bus, flying, or taking a train. 

Aotearoa was once linked up by railways and public bus services – with services between major centres, and a myriad of small towns in between. Today, we have a rail track sitting under-utilised, while fossil fuel prices continue to rise and flying domestically is unaffordable for many New Zealanders. 

Now is the perfect time to use the track that we already have and revitalise our passenger rail network. We’ve proven the demand for rail through the Te Huia service: it regularly exceeds patronage targets, has reduced emissions, and has high levels of customer satisfaction.  

It’s time to invest further in this network: expand Te Huia to Tauranga, reinstate the overnight rail service between Auckland and Wellington, and bring back the Southerner connection between Christchurch and Dunedin.  

Sign our petition to tell the Minister for Rail that you want passenger rail services reinstated! 

Petition Begins 

Tēnā koe Minister, 

We write to you to ask that you reinstate our much-loved passenger rail services across the motu. 

Travelling through Aotearoa is becoming inaccessible for many New Zealanders. The rising cost of fossil fuels is pushing up air fares, and the expense locks many of us out from travelling easily and affordably to see whānau, friends, and loved ones.  

New Zealanders deserve a modern, efficient transport system with real choices for how they get around – whether it’s driving, taking a bus, flying, or taking a train. 

Knowing you are an advocate for rail, we ask that you reinstate passenger rail services as a matter of priority, beginning with: 

• Extending Te Huia to Tauranga 
  
  
• Restarting an overnight rail connection between Auckland and Wellington with modern sleeper cars 
  
  
• Bringing back the Southerner between Christchurch and Dunedin 

Reinstating passenger rail will connect our regions up and down the country, allow for more efficient movement of people and freight, and reduce congestion on our roads – especially in peak holiday travel times between cities and towns.  

Te Huia has proven the success of passenger rail already, by exceeding patronage targets, reducing emissions, and having high levels of customer satisfaction. New Zealanders have shown they want rail and they will use it. It’s time to give the people what they want! 

Sincerely, 

The Undersigned