One of the first takahē chicks to hatch in Greenstone Valley in 2025. Photo: Lisa Van Beek | DOC

Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to our last pānui of 2025. It is Hakihea (Nov-Dec) and we hope there will be time for you to rest and recharge in the coming days or weeks. 

Kua noho ngā manu kai roto i te kōhanga.
Birds are now sitting in their nests.

In the new year, we will hatch our general election year mahi. A big thank you to the members who shared their thoughts in our survey on general election year priorities for OraTaiao. Read about the results of the survey in this pānui and what it means for our mahi in 2026.

Good news:  

• We had a successful AGM at the end of November. Thanks to the members who attended. We passed our updated constitution, which you can read here, and we were fortunate to hear from the ever-insightful Michelle Isles, from Climate and Health Alliance Australia.

• Dr Steve Grimson, our Executive Board member and Transport working group lead, had this important opinion piece published in NZ Doctor earlier this month. In it he outlines troubling changes to Aotearoa's climate policies that are being rushed through parliament just before the holiday period. It's open access, have a read.

Steve's opinion piece advertised on NZ Doctor's website.

• An OraTaiao team of Convenor Summer Wright, Executive Board Member Steve Grimson and Coordinator Marnie Prickett have been selected for Global COACH (Community Organizing and Advocacy for Climate and Health). This is an 8-month programme run by Harvard's FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. The programme will support us over our election year mahi to be as effective as we can be and we intend to share the lessons we learn with our Board and membership. 

Opportunities:

• Is 2026 your year to join OraTaiao's Board?

We will be calling for nominations for Executive Board members early in the new year and holding a Special General Meeting in February for elections.

If you are thinking 2026 might be a good time to contribute to OraTaiao's mahi as a Board member, please get in touch.

You may nominate yourself and you will need your nomination to be seconded by a Member of OraTaiao's existing Board. 

A formal call for nominations will be made at the end of January. 

• Sign up for Aotearoa Bike Challenge and join the OraTaiao team.

Aotearoa Bike Challenge 2026 banner.

The challenge runs from 1 to 28 Feb 2026, it's free to take part and you can win some great prizes (including a $3,000 holiday of your choice)!

Everyone is welcome to join - whether you haven’t been on a bike in years or you already ride. Ride anywhere, anytime and we earn points for every km and day we ride, and for every person we encourage to ride too. 

For more info and to register, head to our team's page here.

• Let's make 2026 the Year of 100 Letters!

Latest on OraTaiao mahi

Members Survey results and what this means for our election year priorities

We received 51 responses to our general election year priorities survey. Thank you so much to everyone who shared their thoughts! 

These responses demonstrated that our members put their strongest emphasis on the importance of the Paris Agreement, Energy/Coal and just transition advocacy, and the Public health system and Pae Ora Act. For our general election year mahi, we intend to focus on these four issues.

There were other important issues to our members, of course, but these were the most consistently highly ranked. To be most effective in our election year mahi, we need to be able to focus our efforts. This will allow us:

• Time to fully understand the details of these issue/asks,
• The knowledge and nimbleness to respond publicly when it’s needed during election year,
• The understanding and relationships necessary to support our members to engage in this issues meaningfully,
• A depth of knowledge and clear asks to engage politicians and hold them to account.

To see the full summary of the survey responses, have a look at these slides, which we presented to members at the AGM in November.

Slide from the presentation on the Members survey demonstrating the characteristics of issues that will be prioritised by OraTaiao as developed by the Board. 

We aim to support members to engage in election year mahi as much as is possible (understanding that some of our members have a lot of time to contribute and others not much at all).

Responses to the survey indicated that members were most keen to attend events (eg, marches, rallies, protests, public meetings, etc.), share material on social media, put up posters or distribute flyers, and write letters to the editor or opinion pieces for the newspaper. 

We've begun this support with our workshop and written guide on getting your letters to the editor published every time. We have a 2026 goal of 100 letters to the editor from OraTaiao members by the end of the year. Please do let us know when your letters get published so we can keep track! We will have another letters to the editor workshop early in the year, and an opinion piece workshop too. 

Looking forward to an impactful year with you all in 2026!

News in climate and health

Supreme Court find government must consider climate change when offering oil and gas tenders

Good news for the end of the year! A big congratulations to Students for Climate Solutions who initially launched the case.

As reported by Radio New Zealand the Supreme Court justices ruled, "Climate change was "so obviously relevant" to a decision that could lead to the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels that it must be considered...

"Climate change is a matter of pressing concern for New Zealand and its well-being both in the near and long term," the justices wrote in their decision.

"Moreover, the Crown has entered into binding obligations on New Zealand's behalf in connection with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Petroleum extraction and consumption are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand and internationally."

The Crown Minerals Act's aim was to "promote" prospecting, exploration and mining "for the benefit of New Zealand".

The court found that 'benefit' was "not simply a recognition of the benefits that flow from mining".

"Climate change is therefore a mandatory relevant consideration ... when deciding whether to offer petroleum exploration permits for tender," the decision said.

"This is because climate change is so obviously relevant to a decision to commence a process which is intended, if successful, to progress through to extraction of petroleum."

Fast-track decisions ramp up, so does community resistance

In the same week the Fast-track Approvals Amendment Act was passed, major mining and quarrying projects were approved. This included expansion of the Waihī gold-mining operation run by multinational, OceanaGold. 

Around the country, communities are organising to resist the Fast-track and its harmful projects. In response to the extension of mining in Waihī, Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki launched its "rally of resistance".  

In response to the proposed open-cast mine near Cromwell, Sir Sam Neill and others in the community, including Sustainable Tarras, are standing up against the mine.

In Northland, Whangārei District Councillors voted to oppose sand mining in Bream Bay.

"New councillor David Baldwin, who drafted the motion, said there was no certainty under fast-track rules that the council or local groups, such as the Bream Bay Guardians, would have a say.

He said the statement was a way of amplifying local voices, which were "overwhelmingly" opposed to sand mining, and making sure they were heard by the government and the consenting panel.

"This motion is our opportunity, as the community's representatives, to draw a clear line in our sand. It's a chance for us to declare that the health, wellbeing and economy of our district are paramount … We must not be taken for granted. This proposed large-scale offshore operation poses an existential threat to Bream Bay's fragile ecosystems.""

If you want to stand up with your local community, please get in touch and we will likely be able to connect you with those working against harmful fast-tracked projects.

Signs at the 'Rally for Resistance' held on 20 Dec 2026 (Photo: Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki)

More cuts to health sector signaled

At the end of last week it was reported Minister for Health Simeon Brawn has asked hospitals and health services to find and additional half-a-billion dollars in "efficiencies" to re-invest in patient care.

However Radio New Zealand reports that "senior doctors' union said so-called "back office" cuts already made it difficult for clinicians to care for their patients.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said the constant cost-cutting did not make sense and, in some cases, cost more money in the the long-run.

"On the one hand, they're saying they spending more money on health," she said. "On the other, they're constantly demanding savings, which they claim will not impact front-line care."

More of the health budget seemed to be spent on locums to fill the gaps left by staff shortages, outsourcing to private hospitals, and paying external consultants to do work that could and should be done by permanent staff, Dalton said."

Opportunities and events

Resource management reform submissions due in Feb

Major and harmful changes to resource management law have been announced. Submissions on the Acts to replace the Resource Management Act 1991 are open until 4:30pm 13 February 2026. You can make your submission through parliament's website.

The Environmental Defense Society (EDS) recorded their webinar on these reforms and this may be a helpful place to start getting your head around what these changes mean for Aotearoa. EDS is holding a follow up webinar at noon on 28 January. It is free to attend but you must register. Register here.

Save the date for the NZ Climate Litigation Conference, 27 March 2026

This conference will feature senior judges, academics, leading practitioners, and scientists from Aotearoa and around the world, for discussion and debate on the most interesting and important issues in climate litigation.

This will be of interest to lawyers, company directors, sustainability professionals, students, and anyone working on or interested in climate change issues. 

Stay tuned for registration details by following NZ Lawyers for Climate Action on LinkedIn or Instagram

Resources

Supporting ourselves & others in climate & health mahi

Climate and health work is difficult. We are acutely aware that we need to put attention on the well-being of those doing this mahi. 

During the AGM, this was raised and Michelle Isles pointed us to the work of Psychology for a Safe Climate. This Australia-based organisation have developed a wide-range of resources for supporting ourselves and others.

I (Marnie) am exploring their 'Climate Feelings Space' currently and you might like to too.