A happy and accessible New Year to you!
We hope you had a lovely, relaxing break and are fully charged to take on the world – or at least your electorate! – and make sure your call for accessibility legislation gets to the right people.
Our petition to have the current Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill withdrawn and a new bill drafted has continued to gain signatures over the break! We’re so grateful for everyone taking time out of their holidays to support accessibility for all.
We still have a long way to go. If we can get a high number of signatures, we’ll have the opportunity to sit with a cross-party parliamentary committee and explain to the Government why we need a new accessibility bill.
Currently the petition is sitting at just over 690 signatures – we’d love to beat our previous Access Matters petition, which had more than 15,000 signatories.
Please share the petition with your friends and whānau.
March to Parliament – January Planning Meeting
Join us by Zoom on Wednesday 24 January at 2pm to be part of the planning for the March to Parliament - including the petition delivery - in March!
Together with other disability groups and supporting organisations, we’ll be marching to Parliament on 7 March in support of strong accessibility legislation. We want your input to help us make the march as impactful as it can be! Register for the Zoom meeting to help brainstorm and hear and share ideas.
Parliament Reopens Tuesday 30 January 2024
The House of Representatives will be sitting for the first time this year on Tuesday 30 January, breaking again for the week of Waitangi Day, and then coming back in the second week of February.
Once Parliament reopens, we’ll be reaching out to the Minister for Disability Issues, Hon Penny Simmonds, to get the Government’s view on the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill. We’ll keep you updated on the Government’s official position.
In the meantime, please sign up to speak with your local Member of Parliament about the access barriers you encounter, and the need for strong accessibility laws. If at least one person in each electorate speaks with their MP, then all of our parliamentary representatives will understand just how important this legislation is to their constituents.
As always, thank you for all your efforts in making accessibility a reality in Aotearoa New Zealand. If you’d like to speak with us about anything, give our Campaigns Organiser Isabelle a call on 022 010 7628 or email info@accessmatters.org.nz.
"Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategizing, sharing and pulling all the levers they possibly can. Gradually, excruciatingly slowly, things start to happen, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something will tip."
Judith Heumann (1947 - 2023), Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
Let’s make 2024 the year of the accessible tipping point!