Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill

Submission:  Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill 

July 2026 

Rolling back progress on climate action 

There is no denying that climate change is hurting us. In the last year alone, a storm has hit our communities once every eight days on average. These storms have been damaging to homes, communities, essential infrastructure, and most importantly have caused the loss of life. The January 2026 storms which hit the upper North Island caused the loss of 10 lives through the effects of landslides and flooding. Cumulatively, these storms are also bringing a significant financial cost to individuals, local councils and the governmen

At a time when climate change is causing harm to people’s lives, the Government’s proposal to further diminish the liability of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and diminish legal avenues for accountability and justice is damaging. 

● We make three comments on the implications on the Bill:First, the rationale of this Bill is flawed. There is no evidence to suggest that the courts will develop a “parallel and contradictory regime”, or that the live Smith v Fonterra has caused business uncertainty.

● Second, it extinguishes the ability for claims relating to harms or effects of greenhouse gas emissions through tikanga. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the development of the Bill included consultation with Māori, which undermines Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

● Third, it leaves Aotearoa New Zealand out of step with recent developments in international law, which provide that States have a strict due diligence obligation to regulate private actors.

● Fourth, as elaborated on below, it diminishes and undermines the convention of the separation of power, which is fundamental to a healthy democracy. 

See full submission here

Conservation Amendment Bill

Submission: Conservation Amendment Bill 

July 2026

About 

OraTaiao: Aotearoa New Zealand Climate and Health Council (OraTaiao) is an incorporated society representing over 1,000 health professionals and organisations. We are the largest climate-health advocacy group in Aotearoa New Zealand. We see planetary health as requisite to human wellbeing and have championed equitable and regenerative climate action for 15 years.  

OraTaiao is very concerned about the proposed Conservation Amendment Bill (the Bill) and its implications on the management of public conservation land (PCL) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Bill proposes a fundamental shift in the function of the Department of Conservation (DOC) from one that focuses primarily on conservation to one that promotes economic use and development of public conservation land “to the greatest extent practicable”. We are concerned about the onward effects of this shift in values on Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural environment and on the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders. The purpose of this submission is to explain our strong opposition to the Bill and its significant implications for planetary health and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (te Tiriti)

Read the full submission here

Submission to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria

Submission to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria

11 June 2026

OraTaiao: Aotearoa New Zealand Climate and Health Council is responding to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga’s call for submissions on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria that remove ethnicity criteria.

Equity in health and climate policy is essential to improve and protect public health. For this reason, OraTaiao strongly opposes the proposed removal of the ethnicity-based access pathway for Māori and Pacific peoples. Removal of this pathway constitutes the reversal of a clinically-designed equity safeguard in a system with known entrenched inequities.

We are concerned that the proposal risks worsening existing inequities in diabetes outcomes, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and premature mortality - as well as increasing health sector costs from treating worsening health with denial of these preventative medicines.

OraTaiao is also concerned that:

• the proposal ignores te Tiriti obligations and ignores the principles of current legislation - in particular, sections 6 and 7 of the Pae Ora Act 2022. OraTaiao notes that the Pae Ora Act 2022 continues in force as legislation ruling Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga’s work. This Act takes precedence over any Ministerial letters of expectation and other directions, and any other Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga policy including the recent Access Criteria Policy
• the proposal is founded on a Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga policy which we find problematic because it ignores current legislation which binds the Board and all Pharmac staff, is not congruent with te Tiriti, is internally inconsistent, lacks public consultation, and contradicts the Cabinet Circular on needs-based services
• Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga never developed or considered any options to retain the ethnicity criteria – despite these ethnicity criteria meeting the Cabinet Circular’s analytic requirements
• the proposal fails to fully reflect expert advice – which was even initially withheld from this consultation, despite Pharmac’s stated commitment to greater transparency
• details of how key evidence has been interpreted (contributing to Pharmac’s stance) have been withheld – despite Pharmac’s stated transparency commitments.

OraTaiao recommends that Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga:

• defer the removal of ethnicity criteria, pending further work and more robust public consultation
• amend the proposed special authority criteria by moving the ethnicity criteria’s position and by clarifying cardio-renal risk and early-onset T2DM
• publicly provide economic information for this proposal on QALY health gains, underlying assumptions, and PICOs used – particularly the counterfactuals undertake and publish a comprehensive equity impact assessment of this proposed change
• undertake analysis on whether, under the Cabinet Circular, retaining the ethnicity criteria for diabetes medicines would be allowable
• develop and consider an explicit option to retain the ethnicity criteria for diabetes medicines, if the Cabinet Circular’s requirements are met
• provide the Board with alternative interpretation of the evidence the Diabetes Advisory Committee assessed, that ethnicity criteria have improved, not lessened, access in Māori and Pacific peoples with known CVRD
• urgently revise the Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga Access Criteria Policy in line with the Cabinet Circular, that ethnicity and age are independent clinical/epidemiologic factors and discriminants, and release the revised Access Criteria for public consultation
• suspend the current Access Criteria Policy and not use it in proposal development until revised and consultation concluded 
• for any consultation on proposals, provide full clinical advice readily, economic information that includes health benefit assumptions, and sufficient time (at least six weeks) to assess all consultation material , for any proposals.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback, and we welcome further contact.

Read our full submission here.

Role of lobbyists in climate law change just one example of unhealthy influences in politics

OraTaiao Convenor Summer Wright and Executive Board Member George Laking

9 June 2026

Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill

Submission:  Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill 

July 2026 

Rolling back progress on climate action 

There is no denying that climate change is hurting us. In the last year alone, a storm has hit our communities once every eight days on average. These storms have been damaging to homes, communities, essential infrastructure, and most importantly have caused the loss of life. The January 2026 storms which hit the upper North Island caused the loss of 10 lives through the effects of landslides and flooding. Cumulatively, these storms are also bringing a significant financial cost to individuals, local councils and the governmen

At a time when climate change is causing harm to people’s lives, the Government’s proposal to further diminish the liability of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, and diminish legal avenues for accountability and justice is damaging. 

● We make three comments on the implications on the Bill:First, the rationale of this Bill is flawed. There is no evidence to suggest that the courts will develop a “parallel and contradictory regime”, or that the live Smith v Fonterra has caused business uncertainty.

● Second, it extinguishes the ability for claims relating to harms or effects of greenhouse gas emissions through tikanga. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the development of the Bill included consultation with Māori, which undermines Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 

● Third, it leaves Aotearoa New Zealand out of step with recent developments in international law, which provide that States have a strict due diligence obligation to regulate private actors.

● Fourth, as elaborated on below, it diminishes and undermines the convention of the separation of power, which is fundamental to a healthy democracy. 

See full submission here

Conservation Amendment Bill

Submission: Conservation Amendment Bill 

July 2026

About 

OraTaiao: Aotearoa New Zealand Climate and Health Council (OraTaiao) is an incorporated society representing over 1,000 health professionals and organisations. We are the largest climate-health advocacy group in Aotearoa New Zealand. We see planetary health as requisite to human wellbeing and have championed equitable and regenerative climate action for 15 years.  

OraTaiao is very concerned about the proposed Conservation Amendment Bill (the Bill) and its implications on the management of public conservation land (PCL) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Bill proposes a fundamental shift in the function of the Department of Conservation (DOC) from one that focuses primarily on conservation to one that promotes economic use and development of public conservation land “to the greatest extent practicable”. We are concerned about the onward effects of this shift in values on Aotearoa New Zealand’s natural environment and on the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders. The purpose of this submission is to explain our strong opposition to the Bill and its significant implications for planetary health and Te Tiriti o Waitangi (te Tiriti)

Read the full submission here

Submission to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria

Submission to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria

11 June 2026

OraTaiao: Aotearoa New Zealand Climate and Health Council is responding to Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga’s call for submissions on proposed changes to diabetes medicines’ access criteria that remove ethnicity criteria.

Equity in health and climate policy is essential to improve and protect public health. For this reason, OraTaiao strongly opposes the proposed removal of the ethnicity-based access pathway for Māori and Pacific peoples. Removal of this pathway constitutes the reversal of a clinically-designed equity safeguard in a system with known entrenched inequities.

We are concerned that the proposal risks worsening existing inequities in diabetes outcomes, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and premature mortality - as well as increasing health sector costs from treating worsening health with denial of these preventative medicines.

OraTaiao is also concerned that:

• the proposal ignores te Tiriti obligations and ignores the principles of current legislation - in particular, sections 6 and 7 of the Pae Ora Act 2022. OraTaiao notes that the Pae Ora Act 2022 continues in force as legislation ruling Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga’s work. This Act takes precedence over any Ministerial letters of expectation and other directions, and any other Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga policy including the recent Access Criteria Policy
• the proposal is founded on a Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga policy which we find problematic because it ignores current legislation which binds the Board and all Pharmac staff, is not congruent with te Tiriti, is internally inconsistent, lacks public consultation, and contradicts the Cabinet Circular on needs-based services
• Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga never developed or considered any options to retain the ethnicity criteria – despite these ethnicity criteria meeting the Cabinet Circular’s analytic requirements
• the proposal fails to fully reflect expert advice – which was even initially withheld from this consultation, despite Pharmac’s stated commitment to greater transparency
• details of how key evidence has been interpreted (contributing to Pharmac’s stance) have been withheld – despite Pharmac’s stated transparency commitments.

OraTaiao recommends that Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga:

• defer the removal of ethnicity criteria, pending further work and more robust public consultation
• amend the proposed special authority criteria by moving the ethnicity criteria’s position and by clarifying cardio-renal risk and early-onset T2DM
• publicly provide economic information for this proposal on QALY health gains, underlying assumptions, and PICOs used – particularly the counterfactuals undertake and publish a comprehensive equity impact assessment of this proposed change
• undertake analysis on whether, under the Cabinet Circular, retaining the ethnicity criteria for diabetes medicines would be allowable
• develop and consider an explicit option to retain the ethnicity criteria for diabetes medicines, if the Cabinet Circular’s requirements are met
• provide the Board with alternative interpretation of the evidence the Diabetes Advisory Committee assessed, that ethnicity criteria have improved, not lessened, access in Māori and Pacific peoples with known CVRD
• urgently revise the Pharmac | Te Pātaka Whaioranga Access Criteria Policy in line with the Cabinet Circular, that ethnicity and age are independent clinical/epidemiologic factors and discriminants, and release the revised Access Criteria for public consultation
• suspend the current Access Criteria Policy and not use it in proposal development until revised and consultation concluded 
• for any consultation on proposals, provide full clinical advice readily, economic information that includes health benefit assumptions, and sufficient time (at least six weeks) to assess all consultation material , for any proposals.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback, and we welcome further contact.

Read our full submission here.

Submission on Building Resilience to Hazards Long-term Insights Briefing | Te Whakatipu i te Tū Pakari Tauroa o Aotearoa ki ngā Pūmate

27 August 2025

OraTaiao supports the intent of this long-term insights briefing (‘the briefing’). However, we believe it can be meaningfully improved and wish to make the following recommendations:

1. Addition of Te Tiriti as a foundation of resilience building.
2. Greater emphasis on the intersection between health and hazards throughout. 
3. Improved articulation of equity and greater emphasis on the necessity of equity in resilience building. 
4. Improved articulation of ‘Climate change and environmental stress’ in Section 2: Forces that shape risk and resilience.
5. Additions to Section 2: Forces that shape risk and resilience.
6. Accuracy on the current status of the Resource Management Act and its relationship to hazards planning.