Lobby For Good Opens Prelaunch Access To New Zealand’s First Member-funded Civic Intelligence Platform

Friday, 8 May 2026, 9:19 am
Press Release: Lobby for Good

Everyday New Zealanders are about to get the kind of civic backup big organisations have had for years, without the corporate sponsors, vested interests, or decoder ring.

Lobby for Good has opened early access to its new Civic Intelligence Platform ahead of its official launch on 14 May 2026, inviting founding members to help test, shape, and improve the tools before the full public rollout.

The platform has been built to help everyday people track the issues that affect their lives through Parliament and local councils, from rates, water, housing, roads and justice, to election promises, voting records, public consultations and community campaigns.

In plain English: it helps people understand what is being decided before it turns into a rates bill, a road cone, a cancelled service, a rule change, or another “wait, when did they decide that?” moment in the group chat.

Lobby for Good founder Erika Harvey says the platform has been four years in the making, not because the idea was unclear, but because the funding model had to be.

“When I first started building Lobby for Good, I realised the people and organisations most able to fund it were often the same people who could already afford lobbyists, advisors, lawyers and consultants to represent them directly. That created a conflict of interest I could not ignore. So I walked away from that path.”

“It has taken four years from our first press release to finally bring this platform to life in a way that matches the mission. Member-funded, independent, and built for the public good.”

Lobby for Good was created because the current system is not short on consultation documents, council agendas, policy announcements, working groups, submissions, hearings, briefings and “we value your feedback” pages.

What it is short on is time, clarity, access, and support for ordinary people trying to

understand what it all means.

For the past four years, Lobby for Good has helped people navigate public systems directly, translating complex civic issues, explaining council and government processes, supporting submissions, and helping communities understand where power sits and how decisions get made.

But demand has outgrown what one small team of volunteers can do manually.

“More and more people have come to us needing help. Many cannot afford to pay for that help, and we cannot afford to keep doing it all one by one for free. So we built the platform around the things people are already asking us for.”

The new LFG Portal includes plain-English civic briefings, issue tracking, voting records, policy promise tracking, community lobbies, issue submissions, election tools, and an AI-powered Civic Advisor that helps people ask questions about New Zealand government, councils, public processes and their rights.

Members can also help shape what gets built next. As membership grows, Lobby for Good plans to expand council voting record coverage, add MP and political party accountability alerts, publish council meeting summaries, and ultimately track all 78 councils across New Zealand.

“This is not a top-down organisation telling people what to think. It is a community funded civic intelligence platform helping people understand what is going on, ask better questions, and act together with evidence, not noise.”

Community Lobbies are one of the platform’s central tools. Members can start a lobby on an issue affecting their community, while anyone can sign for free. Lobby for Good then uses the collective weight of those signatures to take the issue to the MPs, councillors and decision-makers who need to hear it.

“Big organisations have had tools, advisors, research and collective influence for years. Everyday people have had a three-minute speaking slot, a rates notice, a PDF and a headache. Lobby for Good exists to close that gap” says Harvey.

The prelaunch is open now for people who want to become founding members and help test the platform before the official 14 May launch.

Founding members receive early access, help shape future features, and can lock in founding member rates before the public launch.

“This is civic backup for people with bills, jobs, kids, businesses, community responsibilities and very limited tolerance for bureaucratic nonsense. Democracy should not require a decoder ring.”

Lobby for Good is independent, member-funded, not party political, and does not accept corporate sponsorship. They have lobbyists. Now you do too.

It exists because big organisations have lobbyists, advisors, lawyers, consultants and time. Everyday people usually have a PDF, a three-minute speaking slot, and a sinking feeling.

Lobby for Good provides civic backup for everyday New Zealanders through research, plain-English explanations, issue tracking, public-good advocacy, and community-powered civic tools.

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