27 August 2025

OraTaiao is very concerned with the direction this Bill is taking the local government. Local government plays critical roles in human health, and in climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience building. This Bill fails to recognise these roles and, with little analysis, restricts local governments’ ability to deliver on communities’ climate and health needs.

We oppose the drastic narrowing of local government functions as it will put human health, climate resilience, and community wellbeing at serious risk. The Bill undermines councils’ ability to act preventatively, instead seeming to relegate them to crisis response once harms have already occurred. It is fiscally short-sighted and will compound inequities in health and wellbeing.

We are deeply concerned about the ad hoc nature of this and other legislative changes. The Government’s piecemeal approach is creating contradictory requirements and responsibilities for local government, with little or no consideration of human health, climate change, or the immense social and economic costs of climate impacts.

We also note the ongoing and deplorable removal of Te Tiriti provisions from public policy by the current Coalition Government. In this Bill, the removal of the requirement for councils to consider tikanga Māori knowledge when appointing council-controlled organisation directors erodes cultural competence and undermines equity. This will weaken the ability of communities to build enduring resilience and health, and reverses progress towards honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in local decision-making.

This submission covers:

1. The role of local government in health and climate change, and the need for decisions that recognise these intersections.
2. The failure of the proposed “core functions” and their long-term costs.
3. The value of the four wellbeings, and the wasted resources caused by repeated policy reversals.
4. The importance of Te Tiriti in legislation including for local government.

OraTaiao is opposed to the possible changes to health workforce regulation outlined in the Ministry of Health's Discussion document. Our submission focuses on the ignorance of the role of cultural safety and Te Tiriti o Waitangi in clinical safety, co-option of health language to justify inappropriate overstep into health professional regulation, and clear contradictions in stated goals versus what the actual outcomes would be. We suggest that this review be revoked and reattempted in good faith. Read our submission here.

OraTaiao strongly oppose the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill as a profound threat to climate action, health equity, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This Bill ignores the principles of good lawmaking, instead imposing selfish principles that undermine human rights, common good, and intergenerational equity. This Bill will force environmental and social costs onto the public and diminish Māori and collective rights. OraTaiao warns that weakened environmental regulations under the Bill would accelerate resource exploitation and pollution, and worsen environmental and human health. The proposed changes would block the government’s ability to respond to health threats including global overheating. OraTaiao calls for the coalition government to abandon the Regulatory Standards Bill. OraTaiao's full submission to The Ministry of Regulation is available here.

OraTaiao is opposed to the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. The Bill threatens to undermine collective well-being, climate action, and health equity by eroding the constitutional and social fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Bill weakens the health sector, environmental protection, and protections for Māori. 

Unity, cohesion, and respect are essential for well-being. All of which this Bill fundamentally undermines. As health advocates, we stand for Te Tiriti and its promise of equity, justice, and peace for all in Aotearoa New Zealand.

OraTaiao's full submission to the Justice Committee is available here.

The New Zealand Transport Agency released a discussion document in November about increasing the “private share of public transport operating expenditure”. This means that councils would need to take in more revenue to offset the cost of running public transport by charging more money for buses, ferries, and trains. While not set into policy yet, this document shows a clear direction from the government and one that OraTaiao fundamentally opposes.

Our transport working group, led by Steve Grimson, has written a letter to Transport Minister Simeon Brown, calling for the government to reverse this defunding and invest in public transport as a health intervention. Please consider writing a letter to Simeon (feel free to use ours as a template) to show widespread health professional disapproval of such a damaging proposal. 

NZ is the highest per capita historic emitting nation, wealthy, full of natural resources, and among the highest per capita emitters globally. We must be a fair team player to limit global overheating to our humanly adaptable 1.5˚C. There is no excuse for delaying a much more ambitious NDC of over 80% by 2035 for global and international equity. Te Tiriti, fairness, human and planetary health must set NDC2.

OraTaiao's full submission to the Ministry for the Environment, prepared by Liz Springford, is available here.

OraTaiao strongly opposes the amendment bill and urges that it is not progressed. The bill prioritises short-term economic gains over the essential need to reduce our fossil fuel dependence. A fairer, faster and more cost-effective energy transition is possible without the use of new oil and gas. 

OraTaiao's full submission to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee, prepared by Dermot Coffey, is available here.

Unfortunately, the small reductions that have started and the hope for accelerating these are mostly stalled or reversed by a barrage of climate-hostile policy changes. The draft second Emissions Reduction Plan is inadequate to achieve the domestic 2050 emissions targets. We are already way off track to meet our third emissions budget, our 2050 net zero target, or our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and we can’t see how the 2026-2030 plan will turn the ship around. Our inaction will make things even worse. The government's net-based approach wastes the unprecedented opportunity for health gains and health sector savings by prioritising direct gross emissions cuts with health co-benefits. To a tired and stretched health sector workforce, this is indefensible. Furthermore, fully resourcing all Māori and iwi-led emissions reduction plans and priorities is long overdue. Aotearoa’s climate action must enable an equitable transition, grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Mātauranga Māori. 

OraTaiao's full submission to The Ministry for the Environment, prepared by Liz Springford, Scott Metcalfe, and Dermot Coffey, is available here.

Meaningful emissions reductions come from, well… reducing emissions. Not trying to catch them with closed fists. OraTaiao is concerned that carbon capture, utilisation, and storage schemes are a distraction from meaningful climate action. These schemes pose significant threats to our climate goals, and to health equity. The proposal will fail to abate emissions, will not ensure environmental integrity, and is not appropriate for the Aotearoa NZ context. Using CCUS as a greenlight for proceeding with oil and gas exploration is not only a significant financial and technical risk, it will increase climate damage and harm to human and ecosystem health. Each stage of the CCUS process poses major public health risks; also not present in MBIE risk assessments. We urge MBIE not to incentivise carbon capture schemes, and to reprioritise climate health and health equity.

OraTaiao's full submission to the The Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, prepared by Summer Wright, is available here.