I am absolutely blown away by the quality of the participants and their ability to work together to develop such a creative and dynamic product in 48 hours. I am thrilled to know that EmpowerNZ is now in the hands of 50 amazing young people who will take the brand to new heights. The McGuinness Institute was privileged to be able to provide a blank canvas for this initiative, but it was the participants that filled it. The Institute could not have created this space without the generosity of so many busy people, and we wish to acknowledge and thank them again below.

A printable PDF of the Draft Constitution will be on our website on Monday afternoon (3rd September), and soon we will be selling hard copies of the Draft Constitution (at cost) through our online store. We will also be sending complimentary copies to all those involved with the workshop. Lydia Nobbs and I will be preparing a report, Report 14: EmpowerNZ Drafting a constitution for the 21st century, in the next few months. This will set out the purpose, process, product, and outcomes from the workshop. This will be similar to Report 13, which was published following StrategyNZ in March 2020.

We are also pleased to announce that tomorrow we will be launching an interactive web-based version of the Draft Constitution, built by one of the participants overnight, Christian Silver. We will let you know more tomorrow.

All the presentations were filmed and these videos will be made available on our Youtube Channel hopefully by mid-September. Also, we have put some amazing photos from the workshop on Facebook. If any of the participants want a high resolution copy, get in touch with Niki.

 Participants

Kirsty Allan
Tele’a Andrews
Sarah Baillie
Todd Barrowclough
Jessica Bush
Louis Chambers
Reed Fleming
William Fussey
Emma Gattey
Paula Gillon
Tiaki Hana Grant-Mackie
Charlotte Greenfield
Rachael Jones		 Yezdi Jal Karbhari
Zachary Kedgley-Foot
Alex Ladyman
Richard Ley-Hamilton
Dipti Manchanda
Ruth Markham-Short
Lauren McGee
Kieran Meredith
Tiana Morgan
Duran Moy
Andrew Neate
Pania Newton
Chris Nicholls		 Lydia Nobbs
Helen O’Leary
Alice Osman
Ihapera Paniora
Elye Parata-King
Higano Perez
Joshua Pietras
Rosa Polaschek
Sophie Pollak
Oska Rego
Stacey Riordan
Emily Schwikkard
Sarah Scott		 Christian Silver
Ryan Smits Maclaine
Maithili Sreen
Jack Starrett Wright
Kieran Stowers
Diana Tam
Jeremy Todd
Morgan Watkins
Julia Whaipooti
Julia White
Jeremy Wilson

Facilitators
Dean Knight (Head Facilitator)
Jess Birdsall-Day
Natalie Coates
Carwyn Jones
Mihiata Pirini
Marcelo Rodriquez Ferrere
Diane White
Edward Willis

Members of Parliament
Paul Goldsmith (Host, Member of the Cross Party Reference Panel)
Charles Chauvel (Member of the Cross Party Reference Panel)
Hon Peter Dunne (Speaker)
Te Ururoa Flavell (Chair of the Cross Party Reference Panel)
Hone Harawira (Member of the Cross Party Reference Panel)
Metiria Turei (Member of the Cross Party Reference Panel)

Distinguished Guests
Hon Jim McLay, New Zealand’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, (Keynote Speaker)
Emeritus Professor John Burrows QC, co-Chair of the Constitutional Advisory Panel (Speaker)
Professor Phillip Joseph, Legal Constitutional Expert, (Speaker)
Dame Dr Claudia Orange, Historian (Speaker)
Sir Tipene O’Regan, co-Chair of the Constitutional Advisory Panel (Speaker)
Deborah Coddington, Member of the Constitutional Advisory Panel (Working Dinner Guest)
Jo Coughlan, Wellington City Councillor (Working Dinner Guest)
Leo Donnelly, Deputy Ombusman (Working Dinner Guest)
Paul Eagle, Wellington City Councillor (Working Dinner Guest)
Max Harris, Creator of Inspiring Stories (Working Dinner Guest)
Colin James, Political Commentator (Working Dinner Guest)
James Palmer, Ministry for Primary Industries (Working Dinner Guest)
Hinurewa Poutu, Member of the Constitutional Advisory Panel (Working Dinner Guest)
Wayne Silver, Director of Willis Bond & Co (Working Dinner Guest)
Emeritus Professor Ranginui Walker, Member of the Constitutional Advisory Panel (Working Dinner Guest)
Dr Murray Wu, Kiwibank (Working Dinner Guest)
David Young, Author (Working Dinner Guest)
Steven Young, Consultant (Working Dinner Guest)

Special Contributors
Hon Justice Joseph Williams, High Court Judge (Contributed challenging questions for the facilitators)
Megan Salole, Graphic Facilitator (Document art work and mural)
Gillian McCarthy (Head designer)
Katy Miller (Designer)
Machiko Niimi (Designer)

I would also like to thank all those other people who came to the EmpowerNZ Finale and engaged with the workshop through Twitter and Facebook, we are so grateful for your support!

It would be great to keep in touch. Niki and Ella will be helping the participants take this initiative forward, so if you have questions or suggestions, or simply just want to come into the office and have a yarn – please get in touch with them.

Best,

Wendy, Rory, Lydia, Niki, Ella, and the rest of the team.