WEAll Aotearoa New Zealand Winter Update

We hope you enjoy our Winter Pānui

Kia ora koutou

As you know, 2023 is election year and the economy is front and centre. It is a crucial time for New Zealand to ask how our economy can work for the public good – delivering for everyone, including our children and environment.

In this pānui WEAll Aotearoa is excited to announce the date and venue for our first national conference and proud to update you on our work.

Around Aotearoa, communities and businesses are developing new economic approaches that can share wealth more equitably and protect and restore our environment. To solve the big challenges of our age – from climate change and biodiversity loss to inequality and social cohesion – it is clear that we will need to lay down new economic tracks.

That’s a message our Country Lead Gareth Hughes is hearing loud and clear as he travels around New Zealand in a campervan this winter talking to everyday people in towns and cities across Aotearoa about what they want the economy to be and how we can build an economy that puts the wellbeing of people and planet first.

These stories will be shared at the Economy for Public Good Conference at AUT in Auckland, on 31st August, 2023. This major conference will be the first in NZ’s history focusing on redesigning our economic system to deliver for the public good.

The Wellbeing Economy Alliance Hub has been busy over the last few months. We welcomed our global co-founder Dr Katherine Trebeck to Aotearoa and hosted a series of talks and workshops. We partnered with The Workshop to publish a useful paper on how to talk about tax and budgets and we have been actively speaking at conferences and in the media about the need to redesign our economic systems.
This mahi is more important than ever and we are glad you can be part of building this movement with us.

Ngā mihi nui
The WEAll Aotearoa team

Upcoming Events…

The Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa is proud to host the Economy for Public Good Conference at AUT in Auckland, on 31 August.

Hosted by the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa, the Economy for Public Good Conference seeks to weave a shared purpose for moving beyond a broken ‘business as usual’ economy, bringing together those who want to reshape our economy to deliver wellbeing for nature and all our people.

If you’d like to build bonds and share ideas with people inspired to progress past GDP, and create an economy where people and nature thrive, this one-day, in-person hui is for you.

The programme will serve up opportunities to learn from te ao Māori approaches, harvest global doughnut, degrowth and circular thinking, celebrate local wellbeing and business success stories and learn practical skills.

The Wellbeing Economy Alliance’s global Economics and Policy Lead Amanda Janoo will deliver the keynote presentation and comedian Michèle A’Court will act as the event MC.

Registrations are open now.

Thursday, 31 August 2023

Tickets $100

Held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, at AUT

Numbers are limited for this in-person only event

WEAll Aotearoa updates…

WEAll co-founder Dr Katherine Trebeck in Aotearoa

It was wonderful having Wellbeing Economy Alliance co-founder Katherine Trebeck in New Zealand recently. Katherine is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change.

She was in Aotearoa for a series of talks and workshops discussing the global movement towards building a Wellbeing Economy. This ranged from the role of businesses with a seminar hosted by Grant Thornton, the role of government hosted by the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment and local communities with events hosted by the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee and Auckland Council.

Alongside our Country Lead Gareth Hughes she also met with the Finance Minister Grant Robertson a week before he delivered his 2023 Wellbeing Budget and the Hub also met with Ministers and MPs for an event at Parliament to discuss how we move from Wellbeing Budgets and the Wellbeing Reports to a Wellbeing Economy.

Despite the busy agenda Katherine found time to talk to media outlets and was interviewed by Kathryn Ryan from Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon, Newsroom and was featured in stories by both TV channels. She also published an opinion article in The Post and other regional papers.

How to talk about budgets and tax for the public good

Tax and budgets are two big tools we need to get right to deliver wellbeing for people and nature.

WEAll Aotearoa was proud to partner with The Workshop to commission a new briefing paper to give people the tools to shift the narrative on budgets. As The Workshop’s Jess Berentson-Shaw reminds us, tax and budgets  “…help us build the kind of communities and society that are good for all people to live in. To create the conditions in which we can care for each other and the environment well, to enable us to make meaningful contributions.” 

Thank you to Partners for a New Economy for the support for this project.
Read the free report here.

WEAll Aotearoa team

The WEAll Aotearoa team is growing. There’s a wonderful group of people sharing their time with WEAll Aotearoa. Thank you to our trustees – Chairperson Justin Connolly, Treasurer Dr Suzy Morrissey and Secretary Professor Paul Dalziel. Thank you to Nadine Walker, Gina Lockyer, Oliver Harris and Ravaani Ghaemmaghamy who are leading on specific projects.

Wellbeing 2.0

The WEAll Aotearoa team undertook a workshop with the Australian Centre for Policy Development discussing policies to strengthen and embed wellbeing approaches across in both countries which we continue to collaborate on and develop. We were inspired by the CPD’s excellent Redefining Progress Report.

Wellbeing Economy in the News… 

• Country Lead Gareth Hughes looked at how New Zealand can tackle both the climate and cost of living crises in an article for The Spinoff. 

• Trustee Paul Dalziel with Caroline Saunders discussed wellbeing approaches to public policy – the capabilities approach on a Treasury Wellbeing Report webinar.

• Gareth talked about citizen engagement and better policy making on the Impact Collective podcast.

• Gareth had an essay published alongside eleven other prominent New Zealanders in a new book Breaking the Ice on Degrowth published online by Jennifer Wilkins at Heliocene.

• The Wellbeing Economy Alliance and New Zealand was featured in this CNBC article.

• Member Jack Santa-Barbara wrote an article for Newsroom on the unexpected result of sharing difficult decision-making with citizens.

• Dr Catherine Knight wrote an excellent article for Newsroom on why the economy is too important to leave to the experts.

• Gareth Hughes  wrote an article for the New Economy Network Australia on New Zealand’s Wellbeing journey.

• The Wellbeing Economy Alliance and New Zealand was featured in this CNBC article.

• Gareth spoke at the Sustainable Development Conference on building a Wellbeing Economy (watch from 3:29)

The WEAll Aotearoa Hub are looking for people to support our mahi and get active as volunteers. Got a skill like research, webinar organising, social media or fundraising or an economic systems change passion you’d like to explore?

We are looking for sponsors for the Economy for Public Good conference – if you have a suggestion or a contact at a potential sponsor please get in touch. Thank you for your support and we hope you have a safe and warm winter.

Get in touch with Country Lead Gareth Hughes at newzealand@weall.org if you’d like to get more involved