Mānawatia a Matariki mā Puanga! Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to our latest pānui.
As Matariki and Puanga rise and glisten, it is a good opportunity to remember, celebrate, and plan for the future.
This pānui contains OraTaiao updates, upcoming events, and news in climate health.
Good news:
- After several years (!), a few of us from OraTaiao and Climate Health Aotearoa have published a provocative article about NZ ‘feeding the world’. Check it out and share.
- OraTaiao is co-hosting a dietetics student, exploring the links between food choices, wellbeing, and the environment. Spread the word and support her survey for young adults here.
- Dermot ran our first organisational members' get-together last month, with plans to coordinate these online hui three times a year, in September, February, and May.
Plus opportunities:
- Are you or someone you know our next OraTaiao Coordinator? We are recruiting a remote part-time contractor to support our mahi, details below.
- Early Bird registrations are still open for the 2025 Taiao. Tangata. Hauora: Climate Health & Sustainable Healthcare Conference. Register now!
- Want to learn about communicating climate policy effectively, or even stand for local government? Sign up for the free local candidate incubator, GLOW!
- Submit on the Regulatory Standards Bill TODAY using the submission templates provided below.
- Join our next OraTaiao Executive Board meeting on 26 June at 7:00 pm. Pop the link in your calendar here.
- Learn about Matariki, a time for us to gather, remember, and celebrate. Check out Matariki events here.
Image from Te Wānanga o Aotearoa free resources
Ngā mihi nui,
Summer & Dani
Latest updates from OraTaiao
We are recruiting a new coordinator!
We are excited to recruit our next wonderful coordinator! This flexible role is for 10 hours per week, working primarily alongside the co-convenors and supporting the governance and operations of the board. Key tasks include managing our inbox, updating the website, and supporting with meetings and campaigns. If you’re interested in the coordinator position, please email: [email protected] by 27 June with your CV and a bit about yourself and your interest in the role.
Annual call for subscriptions
It's that time of year when we gratefully ask for your membership subscription. You have options to pay a one-off annual subscription or a monthly recurring contribution. See the secure payment page here for details on how to make a subscription payment or a donation. The subscription is OraTaiao’s only regular ongoing source of funding and enables our work on Te Tiriti-centered climate-health action. If you have already paid, thank you, we so appreciate it!
2025 Taiao. Tangata. Hauora: Climate Health & Sustainable Healthcare Conference
Image from University of Otago Conference website
Early bird registrations are still open for the Taiao. Tangata. Hauora: Climate Health & Sustainable Healthcare in Aotearoa conference 2025. Check out some of the speakers here.
When: 28 - 29 July, 2025
Where: Nordmeyer Lecture Theatre, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago, Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, with HUB spaces available in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Ōtautahi Christchurch and Ōtepoti Dunedin, and an option to attend online.
Support OraTaiao student research
Lauren Zwalue is a Nutrition & Dietetics student at Waipapa Taumata Rau, currently being co-supervised by Summer (our Co-Convenor), Nicola Gillies, and Rajshri Roy. She is exploring connections between food choices, sustainability, and wellbeing.
To do this, she is conducting an anonymous survey of young people aged 18-35 living in Aotearoa. To be involved, you can go to the survey HERE or contact Lauren (student researcher) at [email protected].
This study has been approved by the University of Auckland Human Participants Ethics Committee for three years on 16/05/2025 for three years, reference number UAHPEC29269.
OraTaiao speaks out against red flags in the health workforce regulation proposal
OraTaiao responded to the Ministry of Health's consultation on 'Putting Patients First: Modernising health workforce regulation' with a scathing review of the options presented. Removing cultural requirements from health workforce regulation compromises quality care and risks undoing decades of progress made toward health equity. Te Tiriti is not mentioned in the document, despite being a foundational obligation of the health sector and a key aspect of the HPCA Act 2003. This is not an unintended omission; degrading the meaning and effect of Te Tiriti, and therefore the health sector, is a core goal of this government and is apparent in this review. Read OraTaiao’s submission and opinion piece.
Regulatory Standards Bill submission
Submissions are currently open for the Regulatory Standards Bill (RSB) until 1 pm Monday, 23 June. We have prepared another submission, linked below. We oppose the RSB because it is anti-health, anti-climate, anti-equity, and anti-treaty.
Public health and legal experts have criticised the bill, essentially allowing tobacco, alcohol industries, and environmental polluters to seek compensation if future legislation costs them profit.
"You wouldn't want your surgeon to operate with a blunt instrument, but that's exactly the approach the Regulatory Standards Bill takes to the health needs of our society," says OraTaiao Board member George Laking.
The Finance and Expenditure select committee may report back on submissions as early as 23 September, a truncated date that was requested by Minister for Regulation David Seymour.
Luckily, we are supported by great information and tools to help you make your submission:
- Our submission draft here.
- Sector-specific tool, by Melanie Nelson, Dr Ryan Ward, and associates. It asks a series of questions to help you consider impacts on specific sectors, including many questions for health.
- OraTaiao 2024 AGM presentation by Melanie Nelson, her awesome Substack, and other recent articles here.
- Waitangi Tribunal interim report: The Tribunal recommended that the Crown immediately halt the advancement of the Regulatory Standards Bill to allow for meaningful engagement with Māori and the dialogue envisioned by the Treaty partnership.
- A list of statements you can use for your submission by Lawyer Tania Waikato.
- Explainer and Submission Guide.
- A briefing from the Public Health Communication Centre.
- Kōrero with Melanie Nelson and Chloe Swarbrick on why the RSB threatens public services, climate action, and democracy.
SDG2 Zero Hunger and the need to re-think food production in Aotearoa
A new approach is needed to understand and shape the food production system in Aotearoa New Zealand for wellbeing and health equity. After several years, an article co-authored by OraTaiao collaborators, Alex and Summer, Ingrid Mulder, Cristina Cleghorn, and Christina McKerchar, is available to read. This article is a viewpoint, centering health equity and Indigenous Māori rights in a perspective of food production in Aotearoa.
News in climate and health
More missed opportunities for the climate are called out
Image from Lawyers for Climate Action website
The New Zealand government has been sued by top environmental lawyers over its ‘dangerously inadequate’ emissions reduction plan. Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and the Environmental Law Initiative argue the government has abandoned credible tools to tackle emissions, relies too heavily on forestry, and has not adequately consulted with the public. OraTaiao is glad to see this climate litigation going ahead in the hope that the government will be forced to put forward a more ambitious plan.
Lawyers for Climate Action also declared the 2025 Budget another missed opportunity for the climate, choosing to embrace fossil fuels with $200M for the Government to invest in new gas fields. The misplaced ambition continues.
Stop the slide backs, honour our climate commitments
Image by Christina Maiia on Unsplash
A group of independent scientists has written an open letter to Prime Minister Luxon addressing their concern that plans to introduce a new biogenic methane target will jeopardise New Zealand's commitments under the Paris Agreement and the Global Methane Pledge. Nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. The government is deliberately ignoring scientific advice, enabling current high levels of methane emissions to continue as acceptable. We call for climate leadership, for the health of our communities and the planet. Email the Minister of Climate Change using this template to show that now is not the time to slow down or shift targets backwards, but to lead with integrity and honour our climate commitments.
Opportunities and events
Stand for local government!
Image from GLOW Aotearoa website
ACT has announced that their local candidates will have a policy of opposing climate activism. If that fires you up enough to run for local government, support is available! OraTaiao is getting behind the local election candidates incubator GLOW, to encourage more climate-positive candidates on all ballots. The free programme is halfway through, but there are still workshops you can participate in. Sign up here!
Launch of Policy for the Public Good: A Local Government Resource Guide
Monday 7 July @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm, Online
The Wellbeing Economy Alliance invites you to the online launch of a very important guide, providing local government candidates and council staff with the information and tools to build local economies that work for people and planet. The guide shares eight big questions that local government needs to be addressing, along with 104 policy ideas and 80 examples of leadership in Aotearoa and overseas. We are grateful for the work of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and their Health Working Group, exploring how our economic systems shape health outcomes and imagining what healthcare could look like in an economy that truly values people, places, and the planet.
Together for Te Tiriti: Local Body Election Organising Hui
Saturday 5 July, 10 am-1 pm @ Wainuiomata High School
Image from Tiriti Action Group website
Tiriti Action Group is running a local body election organising hui in support of Māori wards and meaningful partnerships with Mana Whenua in the Wellington region. This grassroots event invites all allies to gather as we gear up for the upcoming referendum. If you are living locally, register to get involved here.
Parent Climate Cafe
Wednesday, 16 July @ 8 pm, Online
Image from Humanitix event page
Join an online Parent Climate Cafe, a safe space for small groups of parents and caregivers to share their feelings about the climate crisis and support one another to show up as more resilient parents.
Resourcing for Resilience webinar
Saturday, June 21st, 8 am - 9 am, online, replay available for those registered
This free webinar facilitated by SomaPsych offers a grounded introduction to how somatic resourcing can support real, sustainable resilience - especially in times of stress, uncertainty, or burnout.
Resources
One Resilient Earth shares transformative learning journeys for regeneration. Check out their Mending Earth Programme for young climate resilience leaders to support caring for themselves, others, and nature amidst climate instability.
So You Want to Work in Climate is a crowdsourced collection of 1000+ awesome resources. Check out the “Curated Favorites” tab to start with; there is something for everyone.
Rewiring Aotearoa has created a Policy Manifesto detailing an achievable plan Central Government must take to electrify Aotearoa. We need stronger political leadership to bring about a cheaper, cleaner, more productive, and more resilient electrified future. It’s time for our reliance on expensive foreign molecules to run fossil fuel machines to come to an end.
Image from Rewiring Aotearoa website
The Work of Hospicing recognises that we must tend to endings with presence, reverence, and the wisdom to trust that from these deep transitions, new life will find its way into being. The shaky ground under us is here to stay. Hospicing and composting will leave a landscape to recreate and regenerate, and that’s something to get excited about.
Thanks for reading! Have something to share? Get in touch.
Dani, OraTaiao Coordinator