Public Work
This page brings together submissions, systems analysis, advocacy commentary, and public-interest work grounded in lived experience and institutional observation.
The work published here explores recurring patterns across disability, caregiving, domestic violence, public-sector systems, and institutional accountability — particularly where responsibility is transferred onto individuals without adequate support, clarity, or protection.
These pieces are not written from a position of detached theory. They are grounded in lived systems navigation, public advocacy, and ongoing engagement with the realities people face when institutions become difficult to understand, access, or challenge.
This section includes formal submissions, independent analysis, commentary, and framework-based thinking intended to contribute to broader public and policy conversations in Aotearoa New Zealand.
01
Draft Carers’ Strategy Action Plan Submission
Ministry of Social Development (2025)
Focus Areas:
Caregiving • Disability Systems • Institutional Accountability • Systems Navigation
Overview
This submission responds to the Draft Carers’ Strategy Action Plan (2025) through a systems-analysis lens, examining how policy flexibility, eligibility settings, and operational discretion can unintentionally transfer burden onto unpaid carers.
The submission explores accountability, respite access, decision-making consistency, navigation barriers, and the cumulative impact of caregiving across ACC, disability, health, and social development systems.
Key Themes
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Responsibility transfer
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Decision-level accountability
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Caregiver burden
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Disability systems
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Navigation and eligibility barriers
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Cross-agency consistency
Read Full Submission
02
Violence Against Older Women – OHCHR / UN Contribution
Member Contribution to NCWNZ Parliamentary Watch Committee (2026)
Focus Areas:
Gender-based violence • Disability • Ageing • Institutional accountability • Systems fragmentation
Overview
This document was prepared as a member contribution to NCWNZ’s Parliamentary Watch Committee in response to the OHCHR Call for Input on Violence Against Older Women for the UN General Assembly 81st Session. The contribution explored structural violence, caregiving dynamics, coercive control, institutional neglect, financial abuse, and systems fragmentation affecting older women in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The analysis was later incorporated into broader advocacy and submission work relating to violence against older women and institutional accountability.
Read Contribution
03
Corrections (Management of Prisoners, and Prisoners’ Property) Amendment Bill
Submission to the Justice Committee (2026)
Focus Areas:
Justice systems • Institutional accountability • Trauma-informed policy • Women in custody • Mental health
Overview
This submission examined the proposed expansion of segregation powers within New Zealand prisons, with particular attention to the disproportionate impacts on vulnerable women, wāhine Māori, and people with trauma histories. The submission explored how institutional settings can unintentionally deepen harm when operational safeguards, oversight, and mental health protections are insufficiently embedded at decision level.
The analysis focused on the intersection of trauma, isolation practices, mental health, and systemic accountability within custodial environments.
Key Themes
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Segregation and isolation
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Trauma-informed systems
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Mental health impacts
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Institutional discretion
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Women in custody
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Systemic harm and accountability
Read Full Submission
04
Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy Submission
Individual Submission (2026)
Focus Areas:
Mental health systems • Institutional accountability • Navigation burden • Lived experience
Overview
This individual submission explored fragmentation, access barriers, navigation burden, and accountability within mental health systems in Aotearoa New Zealand, with particular attention to how responsibility is transferred onto individuals and families navigating complex care systems.
Elements of this submission were later incorporated into broader committee consultation work relating to mental health systems and accountability.
Due to the deeply personal nature of the experiences discussed, the full submission has not been published publicly on this website.
