A welcome note to the new Government

He mihi nui ki a koutou, Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters, David Seymour, New Zealand National Party, and your coalition partners.

As you take office and settle into your new role in leading Aotearoa and go about implementing your 100-day plan, we would like to remind you where your priorities must be rooted.

You have come into power at a time of stormy seas stirred by currents of drastic global instability and change. Socially and ecologically we are adrift.

You have the opportunity to steer our precious waka wisely through these torrents with wisdom and foresight rather than prioritising short term economic gain.

As people who have been working with the whenua in Aotearoa for many years and watching her health decline, we see the way forward. We listen to our land and waters and we know that caring for the whenua is the first priority. Everything else must be measured against this.

More catastrophic climate events are inevitable and these will become increasingly, perhaps exponentially more expensive to recover from. Was Cyclone Gabriel not a warning cry? Take heed of the clear signs all around as you paddle us forward.

Your responsibility as a government is to lead this country onto currents that give us a chance to ensure our children’s future is safe, vibrant and healthy. Individual self-interest will not ensure that future; profit will not ensure that future. The economy is worthless if we lose the health of our planet that keeps us alive.

Only strong, brave and positive leadership, based on a vision that unites people and enables us to work together for our common good, offers real hope for the future.

As Tīwaiwaka, the fantail arrived in the pūrākau of Maui’s death to alert Papatūānuku to Maui breaking natural law to gain immortality, we come with a similar warning.

We must work within the boundaries that Papatūānuku imposes. If we don’t we are consuming our future.

We humans are part of nature, just one species among many, and no more important. Our role is to care for the Mauri, the web of connections that sustains life. It is your responsibility as leaders in this time of great crisis, to prioritise the health of our natural world as the bottom line.

Kia kaha, kia manawanui.