Alternative Aotearoa – a defining moment in post-pandemic debate
Alternative Aotearoa
A one-day seminar to provide solutions for the environmental, social and economic transformation of Aotearoa – Saturday 25 July, 8.30am Pipitea Marae, Wellington
A defining moment in post-pandemic debate
This Saturday, 25 July at Pipitea Marae in Wellington.
Representatives of a wide range of health, social justice and environmental organisations will speak at the seminar to propose an alternative approach to the “business as usual” proposals of mainstream politics.
We are delighted to have two marvellous New Zealanders, Justice Advocate Julia Whaipooti and 2020 New Zealander of the Year and President of Equity New Zealand Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand, to Co-chair the day.
Keynote speakers who will set the kaupapa for the day are the Director of Action Station Laura O’Connell Rapira and Pasifika community activist and Auckland City Councillor Efeso Collins.
Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paul and University of Auckland Law Professor Jane Kelsey will record and collate the presentations into a final report which will be available to the media and will be presented in person to each of the main political parties.
We are thrilled with the calibre and integrity of the organisations and presenters throughout the various panels. These groups and individuals are the change-agents New Zealand so desperately needs at this critical time
The full final agenda is pasted at the end of this media advisory. Pasted here also are more details for each of the speakers.
The best opportunity for media to speak with the co-chairs and keynote speakers will be at the lunch break at 12 noon which will be set up as a media conference.
The event will be livestreamed in several places including dev.thedailyblog.co.nz/
The video and transcribed presentations will be found asap after the seminar at chchpn.blogspot.com
Background:
Our main political parties, heavily influenced by corporate priorities, are keen for New Zealand to return to “business as usual” as soon as possible whereby a smaller group of wealthier people can continue to enjoy the benefits of economic development at the expense of the rest of the country.
It was clear well before Covid 19 that “business as usual” had failed most of us. Despite the existential threat of climate change, for example, New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions have continued to rise as policy decisions favour unsustainable economic growth over human welfare. Similar unacceptable failures are evident in biodiversity, fresh water, rivers and streams, poverty and inequality, health, education, housing, mental health, incarceration rates etc
If we go back to “business as usual” we will simply carry forward the myriad of social, environmental and economic problems from the pre-pandemic era, in particular the shocking levels of poverty and inequality which have disproportionately damaged Maori and Pasifika whanau and entire low-income communities.
We need a “new normal” in our economy which focuses on strengthening and empowering local communities to work towards a more sustainable future. That debate will be carried forward at the seminar.
Agenda
Co-chairs for the day:
Julia Whaipooti – Justice Advocate
Jennifer Te Atamira Ward-Lealand – 2020 New Zealander of the Year and President of Equity New Zealand
- 30am Mihi Whakatau – Eugene Ryder
9am Keynote speakers (20 minutes each with time for questions)
Laura O’Connell Rapira – Director of Action Station
Efeso Collins – Pasifika community activist and Auckland City Councillor
10am Health Solutions (10 minutes each speaker)
Teresa Wall – former deputy director-general of health
Dr Jude Ball – Public Health Association
Phil Bagshaw – Christchurch Charity Hospital
Jane Stevens – mental health services advocate
Ian Powell – former Executive Director of Assn of Salaried Medical Specialists
11am Workers’ Solutions (10 minutes each speaker)
Tina Barnett – Former Chair Skycity Employees Association
Yvette Taylor – Campaign Team leader E tū Union
Mike Treen – Director of Unite Union
Anu Kaloti – Migrant Workers Association
12noon Lunch (A vegan lunch will be provided – a koha would be appreciated)
12.30pm Youth Solutions (10 minutes each organisation)
Oli Morphew and Tara Watkins – School strike for Climate
Kalo Afeaki – Pacific Climate Warriors
Tiana Jakicevich – Te Ara Whatu
1.30pm Environmental Solutions (8 minutes each organisation)
Amanda Larsson – Greenpeace
Dr Mike Joy – Better Futures Forum
Eleanor West – Generation Zero
Haimana Hirini and Cally O’Neill – Extinction Rebellion Te Whanganui a Tara
Kevin Hague – Forest & Bird
Aaron Packard and Marcus Newton-Howes – 350 Aotearoa
2.30pm Social Solutions (8 minutes each speaker)
Frank Hogan – Child Poverty Action Group
Kassie Hartendorp – Action Station
Liz Gordon – Quality Public Education Coalition
Dani Pickering – People Against Prisons Aotearoa
Brooke Fiafia – Auckland Action Against Poverty
Michael Sharp – State Housing Action Network
Anjum Rahman – Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono
4pm Afternoon tea
4.30pm Economic Solutions (10 minutes each speaker)
Tania Pouwhare – Social Intrapreneur at Auckland Council
Geoff Bertram – Economist with Victoria University
Susan St John – Economist with Child Poverty Action Group
5.30pm Summary of the day – Presentation of the solutions for the environmental, social and
economic transformation of Aotearoa
Tamatha Paul – Wellington City Councillor
Jane Kelsey – Law Professor University of Auckland
6pm Finish
The seminar will be live streamed in several places – one of these is on the Daily Blog website at https://dev.thedailyblog.co.nz/ The video and transcribed presentations will be loaded as soon as possible after the seminar at chchpn.blogspot.com
Details of Speakers
Keynotes
Laura O’Connell Rapira – Director of Action Station
Efeso Collins – Pasifika community activist and Auckland City Councillor
Health Panel
Teresa Wall – Former deputy director-general of health
Dr Jude Ball – Former chair of the Wellington Branch of the Public Health Association and a Research Fellow in the Public Health Department, University of Otago, Wellington
Phil Bagshaw – Phil Bagshaw, General Surgeon University of Otago Christchurch; Chair, Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust
Jane Stevens – After the preventable death of her son Nicky while in the care of the mental health system 5 years ago, Jane has become a passionate advocate for transformational change to our mental health system
Ian Powell – A health commentator and editor of the ‘Second Opinion’ blog from Otaihanga and former Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists for 30 years
Workers Panel
Tina Barnett – Former Chair Skycity Employees Association
Yvette Taylor – Transformational Campaign Team Leader at E tū, Aotearoa’s largest private sector union. Her work has mostly focused on organising low pay workers in aged care, cleaning and security to be active in the Living Wage campaign and building the wider broad based community movement
Mike Treen – National Director of Unite Union. Mike has been a campaigner against war and for economic and social justice since he was a high school student
Anu Kaloti – Anu Kaloti, the President of Migrant Workers Association, actively fighting against exploitation of migrant workers and campaigning for better migrant rights since 2012
Youth Panel
Oli Morphew – Year 12 student at Wellington Girls College and an SS4C (School Strike for Climate) Wellington organiser
Tara Watkins – School strike for Climate
Kalo Afeaki – Pacific Climate Warriors
Tiana Jakicevich – Te Ara Whatu
Environmental panel
Amanda Larsson – Amanda Larsson is a Swedish-born, Tāmaki Makaurau-based Climate and Energy Campaigner, who has been leading Greenpeace New Zealand’s policy work on the Covid-19 recovery
Dr Mike Joy – Senior Researcher at Wellingtons Victoria University’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and a founder member the Better Futures Forum. He is a freshwater ecologist, environmental scientist and activist
Eleanor West – Member of Generation Zero, a youth-led climate action organisation that mobilises New Zealanders to engage with decision-making and campaign for intergenerational climate justice
Haimana Hirini – Extinction Rebellion Te Whanganui a Tara
Cally O’Neill – Participatory designer for sustainable architecture and social and environmental activism, with a focus on promoting participatory design in climate policy and political process transformation.
Kevin Hague – Kevin is the Chief Executive of Forest & Bird and a member of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, and was previously a Member of Parliament, public servant and community activist
Aaron Packard – Aaron Packard is the chairperson of 350 Aotearoa, and has spent the last 10 years working on global campaigns and projects for 350.org, from blockading coal ports to supporting climate activists to organise safely under repressive regimes
Marcus Newton-Howes – Member of 350 Aotearoa for the past four years
Social Panel
Frank Hogan – “A somewhat aging criminal defence barrister practising for over 45 years mainly in South Auckland now “transitioning “into an advocate for our most vulnerable-namely the children beset by inequality”
Kassie Hartendorp – Community Organiser at Action Station
Liz Gordon – Quality Public Education Coalition
Dani Pickering – Community organiser for People Against Prisons Aotearoa and the #ArmsDownNZ campaign, and a PhD candidate at Victoria University of Wellington. Their research covers political activation and the growth of social movements.
Brooke Fiafia Pao – Daughter of the Pacific, Mama, and AAAP volunteer and media spokesperson
Michael Sharp – A lawyer who has been involved in a number of cases challenging government housing policy, helped to found a housing advocacy service based in Tauranga and is a spokesperson for the State Housing Action Network
Anjum Rahman – Project Lead of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, a project developing a Strategy for Belonging and Inclusion for Aotearoa and seeking to implement it by bringing diverse communities together to work on shared goals
Economics Panel
Tania Pouwhare – Tania (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a social intrapreneur at Auckland Council’s social innovation team where she leads the strategic thinking on livelihoods, wealth and economic power in the context of south and west Auckland
Social Intrapreneur at Auckland Council
Geoff Bertram – Geoff Bertram is an economist at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington
Susan St John – Economist with Child Poverty Action Group, Director of the Retirement Policy and Research Centre
Not being in Wellington I won’t be attending but will be interested to follow as I like to be exposed to a range of views and agree that we have to look at different ways of doing things. Just a small thing – the vegan lunch. It perpetuates the idea that meat eaters like myself are somehow not committed to doing something about the environment. I work in the environmental field, my family and I look to recycle, consume less, compost, attend planting days, actively help others less fortunate etc. But somehow there is this sense that if you eat meat you can’t be fully committed to ‘the cause’.
It’s an attitude that turns me and others off involvement with a number of ‘woke’ groups and we do our thing more individually or in groups of broad-minded people. Not a biggie and certainly not angsting about it. I’m very happy in my own skin. Just putting it out there.
It is I must say incredibly difficult to get things right. The vegan lunch is because that is the simplest and frankly cheapest way to cater for everyone, there is nothing more to it than that. It is the ‘hideous farming’ of animals that I abhor. I eat meat, but not as often as I used to, when my chooks are not laying I buy free range eggs (a choice for the middle class really). Do not for one minute think that others are looking at you because you are not quite as pure, that is complete nonsense. Many vegetarians of course still wear leather. Minto was the primary organiser – I know he eats meat.
You can watch this live streamed on the Daily Blog tomorrow.