A Place of Firsts

Globally, citizens assemblies are widely used as an effective way to involve local people in deciding how to address complex issues such as climate change. Despite the repeated failure of standard policy processes, citizens assemblies have only recently made it to New Zealand. Register for this event to find out more about the Porirua Assembly on Climate and its innovations. 

Porirua is known for community-led innovations in governance and delivery, and the Porirua Assembly on Climate continued this tradition by being:

• the first climate assembly in New Zealand,  

• the first assembly co-designed and organised by an iwi authority and a community group, 

• the first assembly process designed to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi by using a tricameral design,  

• the first New Zealand assembly to include children and young people, and 

• by creating a new local governance body - the Porirua Community Leaders Forum - that sponsored the Assembly, holds its recommendations and can instigate ongoing community dialogue on local issues. 

Panellists will share learning on the Porirua Assembly’s innovations, talk about why the standard citizens assembly model was modified, dig into what enabled so many firsts and how these worked out in practice. They will reflect on this legacy and possible future impacts. Might these democratic innovations strengthen local democracy elsewhere in Aotearoa New Zealand? 

About the Host and Speakers

Jodi Watene is a Systems Change Lead at Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira Incorporated, was the project manager for the Porirua Assembly and is helping to establish a New Zealand Community of Practice on Indigenous Citizens’ Assemblies.

Makerita Makapelu is a Team Leader for Wesley Community Action in Porirua with a background in performing arts and youth work. She specialises in community-led development and grassroots systems change, and was one of the Porirua Assembly facilitators.  

Cally O'Neill was a participatory designer of community spaces until 2019 when she shifted her focus towards advocating for Te Tiriti-based deliberative democracy to address the climate and other contemporary crises. She is a founding member of Te Reo O Ngā Tāngata/The People Speak and was one of the Porirua Assembly facilitators. 

Future Unity, a youth climate group formed during the Assembly process will be represented by Orini Rokx-Taratu and Santino Morehu, who were participants in the Assembly’s youth and community streams.  

Emily Beausoleil is an Associate Professor at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington. Her research as a political theorist centres on the dynamics, conditions and challenges of democratic engagement in diverse societies. She is conducting an independent evaluation of the Porirua Assembly process.