Fridays For Future Aotearoa, Te Upoko Te Ika (Wellington, New Zealand)

Earlier this month, the New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Manawanui ran aground, caught fire and sank off the south coast of Upolu in Sāmoa while conducting a reef survey. The ship is leaking oil from at least four locations, and authorities in Sāmoa say 200,000 litres of diesel has leaked from the HMNZS Manawanui since it sank on a reef last week. 

First of all, they refused to accept the ship was not leaking oil, but now they admit the fuel is leaking, estimating that 900,000 litres of fuel is on board, but maintains that it is ‘probable that the amount of fuel leaked is less than 200,000 litres.’

Sign the petition demandning that the Government urgently send an oil cleanup team to Sāmoa to clean up Manawanui spill.

For the past six years, New Zealand has run a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, with the presentation of the Final Report, Whanaketia – Through pain and trauma, from darkness to light in the House of Representatives in July of this year.[1]

The report outlined 138 steps that the government can take to help survivors to heal, and to support them to live full, thriving lives. 

Unfortunately, the Government hasn’t responded in full to the report yet. So far, all they have done is:

• committed to issuing an apology
• established a Crown Response Office in the Public Service Commission and
• provided a rapid payment of $20,000 for survivors of Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit, who are terminally ill and have six months or less to live.[2,3] 

Sign the petition calling on the Government to accept all the recommendations. 

The For Future’s Sake Choir is a community choir in Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington, that uses their voices and privilege to advocate for:

• honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• improving the wellbeing of disempowered people and
• protecting the environment.

I met them at a protest recently, and they are a lovely group of peeps.

Interested in singing along? Check out the details on their website.

Three community groups are creating a Ngahere Korowai or ‘precious cloak forest’ on the whenua of the Wainuiomata Marae in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai, Lower Hutt.

People from the Wainuiomata Marae, Transition Town Lower Hutt and Nature’s Vela are hard at work planning the transformation of bare lawn on this busy suburban marae to a thriving native ‘tiny forest’ with a wetland. And this project will provide a model for growing ‘tiny forests’ across Aotearoa New Zealand.

‘Tiny forests’ help cool cities, increase biodiversity, improve human health and teach tamariki the importance of nature.

They will create the Ngahere Korowai using the Miyawaki method pioneered by Japanese ecologist, Akira Miyawaki, who introduced the technique of creating tiny forests – often on degraded land – in cities around the world. 

Help Molly and her team.

The Treaty Principles Bill undermines the relationship that New Zealand was built upon. Te Tiriti is an agreement  between two sovereign nations which affirms the sovereignty of tangata whenua, provides a framework for tangata Tiriti to govern their own people, and creates a basis for kotahitanga (unity) between both parties. 

Email the Prime Minister and ask him to stop the Bill (from the Green Party website). (You can customise the email if you prefer.)

The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill introduces 12 new High Protection Areas, alongside 5 seafloor protection zones and 2 marine reserve expansions.

The Government is trying to sneak through a last-minute change to allow commercial fishing in the Gulf’s new High Protection Areas.

Sign Forest and Bird’s petition  to tell Luxon that High Protection Areas are for protecting our precious wildlife and ecosystems. Not for commercial fishing..

Our email address is back, replacing the gmail one we’d been using since the beginning of 2024.

If you’d like to tell us about a climate justice event that’s coming up, please do. But try to let us know a couple of weeks in advance, as we only check our emails weekly.

Fonterra is stuck in the past, while many dairy farmers and businesses here in Aotearoa have already ended their use of rainforest-destroying palm kernel. There’s no excuse for Fonterra’s continued contribution to rainforest destruction.

Sign the petition.

The Future Is Rail/Save Our Trains has started a petition asking that the government ensure replacement Cook Strait ferries are rail-enabled. 

The ageing Interislander ferries must be replaced. It’s crucial that new ferries are rail-enabled and publicly owned, letting rail freight and equipment move easily between the North and South Islands.

Without rail-enabled ferries, the two islands’ rail networks will be disconnected, restricting the movement of goods and putting the national rail network at risk. Current and future passenger rail services also rely on a viable national rail network. 

Less rail means more trucks on our roads, and that’s not good for people and our environment. 

The government said in its transport policy statement that it would prioritise making the best use of existing transport infrastructure. The only decision consistent with this policy is to ensure future ferries are rail-enabled.

Sign their petition now.