Posts in “Politics” category

Silencing Our Most Marginalised Women By Stripping Away Their Voting Rights

By Awatea Mita (justice scholar and kaiwhakatuhono for Aotearoa Free From Stalking) Aotearoa New Zealand often touts a strong history of supporting women’s rights, taking great pride in being the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1893. However, we have regressed, and it might come as a revelation to some that ...

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Posted: May 14, 2025Categories: , , ,

Your opportunity to push back on cruel & dangerous “education”

Update 14 May: You can read our submission on the RSE guidelines here. April 2025 The government is attempting to impose its extremist transphobic, racist, colonial and misogynistic views on the next generation via wholesale changes to education about relationships & sexuality. You can let them know what they’re doing is unacceptable. The sensitive and ...

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Tautoko to Tamatha Paul

Tautoko to Tamatha Paul and everyone else working hard to ameliorate authorities’ immediate and ongoing responses to crisis and emergency – whether due to violence, other crimes, and/or health emergencies including mental distress.  Many individuals and communities have reason not to trust the police, including many women experiencing family violence, sexual violence or other forms ...

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Posted: April 3, 2025Categories: , , ,

Letter to Minister Stanford – RSE Guidelines

Update 9 May 2025: We received a reply from the Minister – note it is dated 9 May, while mentioning an opportunity to give feedback on the draft RSE framework which closed on… 9 May. The Minister’s response is here (in non-accessible form, with non-live links, as it was sent to us). We already knew ...

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Posted: March 17, 2025Categories: , , ,

Speak your truth to power: a guide to making oral submissions

Karawhiua – you can do it! Telling personal stories can make a difference.  Part of the usual process of law-making – turning Bills into Acts of Parliament – is the public getting to have their say on the proposed new law. Anybody can write a submission to whichever select committee of MPs is reviewing the ...

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Posted: February 28, 2025Categories: ,

Our submission on the anti-stalking bill

Ma te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai tātou In unity we have strength   The Auckland Women’s Centre “Aotearoa Free From Stalking” submission on the anti-stalking bill (aka the Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Legislation Bill) made 15 recommendations urging critical changes to ensure the bill meets its goals.  Our submission is informed by the 90 ...

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Posted: February 25, 2025Categories: ,

Public or anonymous? – options to have your say on the anti-stalking Bill

Ways you can inform the anti-stalking law We are encouraging people to inform the Crimes Legislation (Harassment and Stalking) Amendment Bill, particularly if they feel able and safe to share real-life stories of stalking which are relevant to the parts of the Bill which need to change (click here for our submission content guide). There ...

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Posted: January 28, 2025Categories: , ,

Chelsea Winstanley: Life is a Series of Soul Collisions

The director and Oscar©-nominated producer talks hīkoi, heroes and Hollywood On a lovely Spring evening, we witnessed a warm chat among friends at Western Springs Garden Community Hall: it turns out Chelsea Winstanley (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) and Stacey Morrison (Ngāi Tahu, Te Arawa) have got to know each other through their daughters. And ...

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Posted: December 12, 2024Categories: , , , ,

“Bait-and-switch” stalking bill would “water-down” protection from harassment

Release from Aotearoa Free From Stalking The government is set to “water-down” protection from harassment in a new law supposed to keep people safer from stalking, say violence-prevention experts. “While we support the bill overall, the government’s plan would make it harder to free some whānau from the terror of serious intrusions into their lives,” ...

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Posted: December 10, 2024Categories: , ,

Why cis women need to stand up for trans rights

This article was previously published in The Press.  Maia Hall is the Centre Manager at Auckland Women’s Centre. People who are gender-queer have existed as long as there have been people. Gender queerness is not a threat to anything except to the patriarchy. Trans women are women, and trans rights are women’s rights. Auckland Women’s ...

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Posted: July 25, 2024Categories: , ,