Dear Friend,

From my last email at that crucial time ahead of the election, we needed a big response to make sure all political parties knew that accessibility legislation mattered to voters. Hundreds of you responded and contacted your local candidates to tell them that Access Matters - and it worked. In that final week we had word from New Zealand First that they support Accessibility Legislation and the ACT Party released a statement on disability which showed some positive intent.

As coalition negotiations begin this week I find myself making that same call again - it is up to us to keep access on the agenda. As the parties meet to negotiate their priorities for the coming parliamentary term and see who can form a government, we need to make sure that they know we expect them to honour their commitment to us, their commitment to accessibility. We have written a formal letter from the Alliance but it is important MP’s hear this from their constituents.

Click here if you are ready to hold our politicians to account on accessibility.

We need to achieve cross-party support so accessibility won’t be bartered away in coalition talks, and we are so close.

We have made it easy for you to contact MP’s who have been re-elected, and those who are new, and ask them to make good on their party’s commitments on accessibility.

Click here to email your local MP or visit them in person and ask them to keep accessibility on the agenda. We have prepared some resources for you, and a briefing paper you can leave with them.

No matter the outcome of these coalition negotiations, we need to make sure that we do all we can create a truly accessible New Zealand.

I appreciate all that you do to help make this possible.

Kind regards,

Dianne Rogers
General Manager, Policy and Advocacy, Blind Foundation and Project Manager to the Access Alliance

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle

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