15 days left!
It's been a busy week, and it's only Wednesday! Let's recap the week so far and highlight some things you should know about...
Feel free to skip to the comments if you read this already in your email!
In politics, Shane Jones said oral sex is woke. Maybe that is why his wife left him? Christopher Luxon proved that even a broken clock is right twice a day by pointing out Jones is trying to be Aotearoa's Pauline Hanson.
Anticapitalist goats have shut down parts of SH8. The mayor of the Central Otago District Council gave an excellent quote about the topic: “There are a lot of goats".
In small dog news, a small dog was rescued from the San Francisco Bay and The Guardian wants you to know that it was "towelled off by a team of tattooed firefighters." Ok!
And an Australian woman has given birth to identical quadruplets - a 1 in 15 million event.
That's the only news that happened this week. Onto other things...
In very important news: If you whakapapa Māori there's just 15 days left to switch to the Māori roll. I am extremely behind Tania Waikato's thirst trap campaign on instagram and you should be too!
There's just 96 days left to enrol to vote. Please take a minute to check now to see if you're enrolled and if you need to update your enrollment. Please talk to the young people in your life about enrolling.
It's that time of year when power bills are incredibly high. If you're in a household where every cent is allocated, it's a really hard time. Folks will be going without to afford their power bills, or they won't be heating their homes.
Do you know about Boots Theory? Also known as the Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness? It's from Terry Pratchett's novel Men at Arms from the Discworld series:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. ... A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. ... But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socio-economic unfairness.
I think about this a lot when I think about power bills. A while back I did some research into energy inequality (I say I did research but I just read research by actual researchers). Anyway, research shows that low income families and individuals spend more on power than wealthy folks.
Low-income households spend over 7.5% of their income on electricity, while high-income households spend under 1.5%, according to Dr Kimberley O’Sullivan and researchers from the University of Otago. And renters are three to four times more likely to experience energy hardship than owner-occupiers.
All of this is to say:
If you can spare some dollars to buy some extra groceries to put in your local food bank or Pātaka Kai please do! Click here see if there is a Pātaka Kai stand in your neighbourhood.
Emily Writes
Related: New Zealand has no long-term energy plan. Sign this petition to join us in demanding one!
Also related: The Green Party has a plan.
Together for The Vote is for anyone who wants to boost enrolment and help folks to get out and vote this election.
If you’re serious about Te Tiriti, economic and climate justice, you know the need for real change is stronger than ever. Together, we're capable of building a mega-movement to not only change the government, but set the direction for a future we need in Aotearoa. Register here.
Digitise Homosexual Law Reform submissions
Do you know about Kawe Mahara Queer Archives Aotearoa?
If you're in Ōtepoti you can go to the Hocken Collections to help digitise copies of the 989 submissions made to Parliament during the Homosexual Law Reform (HLR) campaign 1985-86. The submissions are handwritten and volunteers are needed to review them.
The workshops are on Friday 24 July, 10.30am - 12 Noon and Saturday 25 July, 10.30am - 12.30pm. Register here.
Petitions to sign!
Return the Total Mobility subsidy to 75% and let us go out and about with dignity
Recognise Tourette Syndrome as a government-funded disability in Aotearoa
Recognise and protect New Zealand’s family, whānau and āiga carers
Require a register, oversight mechanisms, and public input for government AI use
Save the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area
E Tū E Kī: They Don’t Speak for Us - Block the Definition of Woman Bill
Urgent Establishment of a Sudan Special Humanitarian Visa Pathway
Support people fighting cancer and fund cancer research
Almost all of us know someone who has faced cancer, or we have faced cancer ourselves. I've lost a beloved aunty to cancer, and my dear friend Helen is facing cancer, so that's part of why I collect for the Cancer Society each year on Daffodil Day with my kids. Volunteer to collect here.
This year, you can join the first-ever New Zealand Daffodil Day Dip and turn a chilly swim into life-changing cancer support. One in three New Zealanders who will get cancer in their lifetime - so please join me or donate!
You can join Team EWW here! Or donate here to my fundraising page if you like!
Trans Coffee is a pretty cool initiative. They're putting up free pop-up outdoor cafes staffed by trans folks across Aotearoa. Follow them on Facebook or Instagram. They have their first pop-up in Midland Park in Te Whanganui a Tara on Wednesday 29 July (rain date 31 July) and Tuesday 25 August (rain date 28 August). You can make a donation and find out more here. They're also running a fundraiser at the Newtown Community Centre on Saturday 15 August at 7 pm (recommended koha $25) where they're screening the excellent film: Pride.
That's all from me today. I'd love to hear what community causes you're getting behind or events you want to share. Let me know in the comments.
Arohanui Emily x