WE ARE A COMMUNITY OF fair-minded PEOPLE who want to get things done
ActionStation believes in an Aotearoa New Zealand that is fair and flourishing, with courage and compassion at its core.
It’s our shared values, plus a willingness to act, that makes someone an ‘ActionStation kind of person’. Not your age, income, postcode, party politics or ethnic background. Not how many protests you’ve been to or committees you’ve sat on.
Whether we’re campaigning to get multinationals to contribute their fair share of taxes, end poverty, stop the TPPA or save public broadcasting – what all our issues share is a broad commitment to fairness and the common good.
WE ARE COMMITTED TO WORKING TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE:
Economic Fairness
Whai Hua te Tika
We act together to create what we cannot achieve on our own: a society and economy that serves all New Zealanders and the planet we love.
A Thriving Environment
He Taiao Momoho
We work together to create a society, economy and democracy that protects and ensures the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity.
Human Rights & Global Peace
He Mana Tangata, He Ao Rangimārie
We work together for a peaceful world where all people, everywhere are able to enjoy their human rights, with dignity.
A Transparent Democracy
He Kawanatanga-ā-Iwi
We work together to protect, promote and enhance a robust and open democracy and make sure everyone has easy, and meaningful, ways to participate and be heard.
WE've SHOWn UP IN BIG NUMBERS to push for solutions to some of our toughest problems
‘People power’ isn’t just a nice slogan at ActionStation: it is ActionStation. It’s why we’re here and how we get things done.
ActionStation members participate in large ways and small, online and on the streets, to make their voices heard, including:
- Signing petitions, directly contacting their MPs, sharing content on social media;
- Starting their own campaigns using ActionStation’s community site;
- Becoming media spokespeople for campaigns they know and care about;
- Volunteering their time to help other ActionStation members launch their own campaigns successfully;
- Reviewing campaign proposals to ensure they are consistent with community values; and
- Funding every campaign ActionStation works on.
400,000
petition signatures across more than 100 petitions
10,000
individual submissions to Parliament
30,000
messages sent to decision makers via email and phone
$330,000
raised in donations, with an average gift of $23
CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2016
We took a stand for homeless New Zealanders, and won.
When news broke that the Government was charging homeless families for emergency housing in motels up to $1440 per week, ActionStation member Kyle MacDonald launched a community petition that was signed by more than 9,000 people in just a couple of days.
We delivered that petition to Minister Anne Tolley and a few hours later, the Minister’s office called to tell us that they will change the policy so that the first week of emergency housing is covered by a special needs grant rather than a loan.
With the latest research out of Otago University revealing that 41,000 New Zealanders are now homeless, the number of people potentially impacted by this campaign is huge.
We pushed Government to crack down on tax dodgers!
ActionStation members have been taking action to ensure multinational corporations pay their fair share of tax for almost a year. Together we've crowdfunded opinion polling, sent thousands of emails and helped drive the media agenda.
Recently, the Government announced a plan to crack down on tax dodging by multinational companies, including by changing the law.
This is a dramatic turnaround from their earlier position, and it's clear ActionStation's campaign has made an impact because our people-powered polling even got a mention in the Government-led Shewan Review.
We helped equal pay make significant gains!
We’re proud to be the first country in the world where women fought for and won their right to vote. We’re proud to be one of the first nations to support marriage equality.
But today, women in New Zealand are still paid 14% less than men.
The equal pay legal case of aged care worker Kristine Bartlett, supported by unions, opened the door for a discussion about equal pay for equal work. This led to a Joint Working Group who made 21 recommendations to the Government, which set out principles for raising and resolving pay equity claims.
10,000 of us signed a petition launched by ActionStation supporter Jessica calling for Cabinet to accept these recommendations in full. We delivered this in November, gaining media coverage from Newstalk ZB and Newshub.
The Government went on to accept every recommendation!
We stood by our young people and helped secure an increase in the age of state foster care
Under the previous law, children in state foster care would lose child services protection when they turn 17, but weren't able to access adult support like student allowances until they turn 18.
This meant that every year around 400 young people fell through the cracks, often ending up living on the streets.
We teamed up with Lifewise, Dingwall Trust, Youthline, Child Poverty Action Group, Wesley Community Action and Christchurch Methodist Mission to ask the government to raise the age of foster care from 17 to 21.
We delivered a 14,000-strong petition to Minister Anne Tolley, and sent hundreds of emails to reinforce this call.
In October, the Government announced they would extend state support and protection to young people up to the age of 21.
Together, we can inspire our politicians to choose compassionate, smart policies that keep our kids safe and give everyone the chance to flourish.
We cast a light on dodgy Government dealings
10,000 ActionStation members called for a full investigation by the Auditor-General into the $11.5 million deal between Foreign Minister Murray McCully and Saudi sheep farming magnate Al Khalaf.
It was a murky deal involving handing over millions of taxpayer dollars behind closed doors with little-to-no information made public.
The Auditor-General’s office launched a full investigation into the deal in response, and the report showed that the concerns of our members were founded.
Back-room deals and multi-million dollar handouts undermine our democratic process.
Let this be a lesson to all politicians — you can’t simply hide the details of deals you don’t want the public to see.
We helped boost the funding to sexual violence support and prevention services
In 2015, New Zealand was ranked below only sub-Saharan Africa, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe when it comes to rates of sexual violence.
Yet the Government continued to make cuts in funding to services providing support to survivors of sexual violence.
This year, we delivered a 14,000-strong petition to a cross-party group of MPs calling for more funding and support of sexual violence services across the country.
Not long after that delivery, the Government announced they will put an extra $46 million into sexual violence support services over the next four years.
We helped kick out human rights abusers Serco, from our public services
Serco are a company that profits off human misery. They are an outsourcing company used by Governments the world over and have a history of managing detention centres in the UK and Australia where regular reports of horrific human rights abuse take place.
Until recently, they were also the company in charge of running Mt Eden Prison.
That was until news of a ‘fight club’ at the prison was leaked and ActionStation member John Palethorpe launched a campaign to say no to Serco.
5,000 ActionStation members joined John in his call for an investigation, and as a result of that investigation and ongoing pressure the Government cancelled the contract with Serco.-
WE TOOK MORE ACTION OFFLINE THAN EVER BEFORE
Special thanks to all of our friends who offered their photography, printing, videography and design skills to our work for free, or at heavily discounted prices.
You can click the photo to make it bigger.
Here are eight campaigns we're working hard on right now
We want a public healthcare system we can all be proud of
We all want our friends and family to be happy and in good health.
But our public healthcare system has been severely underfunded for almost a decade, putting good health out of reach for hundreds of thousands of us.
We’re working hard to make health funding a key election issue for 2017.
ActionStation members from all over the country are leading local campaigns to increase health funding at a national level.
We want to ensure every family has enough to thrive, not just survive
Public concern about poverty and inequality has grown over the past decade, but hasn’t translated into support for the policies we need to improve the lives of struggling families.
Why? One reason is the way we talk about it. We’ve made the problem clear, but we haven’t explained the causes.
We're crowdfunding message testing - the kind usually only available to mainstream political parties and big brands who spend millions testing ways to get sales and votes.We're going to find messages that lead to support for policies that improve the lives of the poorest families.
We want the public mental health system to work for those who need it
Although everyone would hope to live in good mental health, the reality for many New Zealanders is very different, and for them and their families, the expectation that they should be able to get help when they need it is vital.
But there are signs that the public mental health system designed to offer this help is in crisis. Those most in need are experiencing long waiting times for support and the country is experiencing alarmingly high levels of suicide.
The Ministry of Health has rejected repeated calls for a Government review of the public mental health system, so along with comedian Mike King and psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald we have decided to run our own.
We're standing with Standing Rock
The Dakota Access Pipeline project threatens the water supply for millions of people, destroys s sacred indigenous sites, and contributes to climate pollution.
It can seem like there isn’t much we can do to help while we’re sitting thousands of kilometres away in New Zealand.
However, Citibank are the ringleaders of the bank's funding this destructive pipeline, and they have a branch in Auckland.
Since 2007, Kiwibank have also used Citibank to process all of their international payments.
We’re putting pressure on Kiwibank to drop their funding of the pipeline project.
We're working to end poverty in New Zealand by 2030!
All parents want their children to do well but many kids won’t get the start they deserve because lots of families are over-stretched by things like rising rents.
Meanwhile, the rules of the New Zealand economy have been rigged in favour of the rich. This small minority of people now siphon off almost half of all wealth generated in this country.
It’s not fair, it’s not right, and the Government has the power to change it.
New Zealand already has a goal to halve all poverty by 2030.
We want our Government leaders to increase their ambition and work together to end poverty in New Zealand by 2030.
We want KiwiSaver to invest ethically
When it was revealed that KiwiSaver funds were being invested into companies that make weapons, tens of thousands of us took action. As a result, KiwiSaver providers dumped $109 million in weapon and tobacco investments.
This is incredible progress, and testament to our community’s ability to take swift action. But some fund managers are still holding out against public pressure.
We know from independent research crowdfunded by ActionStation, that 86% of New Zealanders disapprove of using “KiwiSaver funds to invest in ‘weapons, bombs, landmines and missiles’.
It’s time our laws reflected our values by making these unethical investments illegal.
We're working hard to fix broadcasting and media
We've gathered a panel of experts from across the political spectrum to conduct a crowdfunded and people-powered inquiry into the state of broadcasting and media.
The panel will tour the country taking submissions from the public on and offline, as well as looking at international models we could look to for inspiration.
The panel will put the results of this inquiry into a report which we will use to to ensure broadcasting is on the political agenda for 2017.
The report will make 3 policy recommendations - which could include calling for more funding for public broadcasting, or support for new models of journalism.
Our high-profile panelists, and their report, will help ensure that no political party can get away with not having a solid broadcasting policy.
We're working to help people granted refuge in Aotearoa rebuild their lives
People granted refuge here fall into two legal categories or ‘labels’ - ‘Convention’ and ‘Quota’ refugees.
Both groups of people come here under extremely difficult conditions. Both come here seeking a better life for themselves and their family. Yet only people who get the label ‘Quota refugee’ are entitled to Government resettlement services and support. Support like language and job training.
We believe all people granted refuge in New Zealand should receive this vital support. It wouldn’t require new programmes to be developed, just an extension of services we already provide.
WILL YOU CHIP IN TO HELP MAKE 2017 EVEN BETTER?
ActionStation is funded entirely by donations from thousands of supporters across New Zealand.
We rely entirely on member donations and grants. We receive no government funding. Our team works hard to ensure even the smallest contributions go a long way. No amount is too small and all donations will help build a fairer, more flourishing Aotearoa New Zealand.
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