What I've Found Out About Parliament Petitions

There's a number of ways to get your views heard by Parliament:

• Go and see your local MP
• Send letters / postcards to your local MP and others
• Send emails
• Make submissions on things as they arise
• create a petition

Now, an astute friend and I discussed petitions the other day, 

H: I don't know how much good the petitions do. I sign them most of the time.

  

Me: Yeah. An expression of some of the public, probably. Only the really big ones really make a mark though. Weirdly it's probably too easy to do nowadays, so it's like a Facebook thumbs up or a repost of something. Easy but pointless

H: Yeah, a bit like wishing someone happy birthday because Facebook told you it's their birthday

If petitions are your thing though there's a few to use in AoNZ:

• OurActionStation
• Petitions.nz
• Change.org (NZ petitions)
• Wellington City

There may be others out there, have a search.

If it's the Government that you want to be hearing your view then head over to https://petitions.parliament.nz/, it's extremely easy to set up a petition (guide), the challenge is to get the weight of public opinion behind you, good luck.

Here's some current petitions that caught my eye for a wide range of reasons :)

• Impose a 4-day week for all full-time workers and students ... fits with my recent Four Day Working Week, I Like It article 
• Legalise marijuana
• Make Aotearoa New Zealand the official name of the country
• Separate open and closed petitions on the Parliament website - tbf this already exists using the filters
• Decrease the number of T.V. programmes about stalking and murder - they (7) are coming for Midsomer Murders and all the cozy crimes, nooooo
• Ban pornographic websites - Edward Genet goes all in with the effects of porn. I wonder how he thinks this could be done
• Abolish school uniforms - I suspect Dylan Power is a student. I signed this one.
• Make pay transparency mandatory in job ads - YES!
• Stop all ministerial salaries - I don't quite understand what Hone Wiremu Hohepa is getting at here, interesting though
• Checkout staff in every supermarket or minimarket should have a sitting choice - YES!

Intriguingly the petition with the most signatures (18,007 as at 28th June 2025) is Pass online safety legislation for children and ban social media until age 16, which must be connected to Catherine Wedd's (National) Private Members Bill, Social Media (Age-Restricted Users) Bill - petitions can work.

Finally, my ultimate eyebrow raising petition is Repeal women's right to vote from someone called Daniel Pereira:

I believe: the future of Western civilizations depends on rational decisions; women are not as rational as men; empathy without rational thought can lead to very poor decisions for a country; political decisions should never be made from knee-jerk reactions to emotionally-charged topics; and open borders, puberty blockers for children who can't consent, and other forms of wokeism are products of the female vote. I believe it's time to bring reason back to the table and to restore patriarchy.