One for the Kiwis

Kia ora,

I don’t often get political in this newsletter, but my god, I cannot wait to vote out this government on November 7.

I could bang on about what bollocks the coalition have been doing, but I’ll stick with a summary of the Conservation Amendment Bill this time. 

This bill opens up around 60% of public conservation land for development, including being sold to third parties. It also changes the Department of Conservation’s function so it has to consider economic use of public conservation land. Economic use of publicly owned land should not be part of DOC’s remit. It’s the Department of Conservation not Economic Extraction. And once that land is sold, there’s no getting it back.

What can you do? You don’t have to wait until election day to have your voice heard. You can make a public submission (and you can make your voice heard literally if you ask to speak at the committee hearings). It’s easy and quick. You don’t have to have a law background or write a formal essay. A paragraph or two explaining your view is all you need.

If you want help, the Yeah, Nah website helps people make public submissions. I used it to help write my submission. (No AI involved, either.)

Forest & Bird have a great explainer on the bill that goes into detail on what’s at risk. They also have a one-page explainer.

So, go and make your voice heard. And make sure you’re registered to vote!

Here’s a summary:

• Learn more about the bill with Forest & Bird: One-page explainer PDF and 11-page explainer PDF.
• Get help writing your submission with Yeah, Nah.
• Make your submission.
• Register to vote (make the Orange Being proud).

Cheers,
Deborah

PS: Last week I posted a new article on writing accents in travel narratives. Problem was, the examples got mixed up in the internet tubes so what you saw in your inbox was not what I saw when I sent my test email. So if you read the article and wondered what was going on with those half-baked examples, know that they’re fully baked over on my website. Here’s the article in full.

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📚 What I’m reading

Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada’s Arctic, by Adam Shoalts. Just a couple of chapters to go. I’m thinking my next read needs to be set somewhere warmer than the Arctic!

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📅 Availability

I have space available from mid-June. That’s just a couple of weeks away! Get in touch if you want a sample edit so you can see what editing can do for your story.

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✍️ Ways to work with me

Apply for a free sample edit​

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