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Youth councils > Get your voice heard in your community > Organise a Petition
Organise a Petition
You can also organise a petition on some issue to give to your council.
You can also organise a petition on some issue to give to your council.
A bunch of people did a petition recently to the councils in their area
requesting them to support a law to encourage recycling bottles by
giving people coins when they put bottles in the right place. Some
young people also gave their council a petition to try and stop a
public space used by young people being demolished.
If there is an issue that you are very concerned about and want the
council to look into or change, a petition may be the way to go after
you have tried other things like talking to councillors, the community
board and bringing the issue up at a public meeting. Remember that
petitions are best used as the last option rather than the first action
to get concerns heard.
You can do a petition on any issue relating to the job of the council.
Check back to the blurb above on what local council and regional
council’s jobs are to work out who to send it to.
For more information
- Google petition council New Zealand and see what other petitions have recently happened around the country
- Also check out the Aotearoa Youth Voices Guide to doing a petition.
While it is about petitioning parliament and not a local council, you
can use it to help you think about research and your layout.
Things to remember when doing a petition
- Do some research on the subject first and then write a really
clear couple of paragraphs about why it is so important. What would be
the benefits for your community if your petition was successful? This
is not your petition statement under which people sign but your
information sheet. Use this when you need to talk with people about
your petition to give all the reasons why they should sign it.
- When writing the petition statement, be really clear about what
the reason for the petition is and what you want the council to do.
People need to totally understand what it is that you are asking them
to sign.
- Make the statement short – a couple of sentences long. Start with something like “We, the undersigned, request the council to…”
- Check the statement with some different people, other young
people and also some adults before you start setting up that stall
outside the mall to collect signatures...
- You can ask a community board member or a councillor to present the petition or you can do it yourself.
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