Archive

France’s State of Emergency Becomes Permanent

Posted 11:36am Sunday 8th October 2017 by George Elliott

In response to the spectre of terrorist attacks, France has made its current legal exceptions permanent, kicking the judiciary out of the process and expanding warrantless practices. A state of emergency has been in place since November 2015, when hundreds were killed or wounded in a coordinated Read more...

Critic Interviews: OUSA President Hugh Baird

Posted 11:13am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joe Higham

OUSA President Hugh Baird speaks to Critic about what the successes and failures of his presidency, whether he considered running again, and his advice for President-elect Caitlin Barlow-Groome. Joe Higham: How different was the year from what you had expected it to be when you were in Read more...

5 Star Hotel Declined but Developer Not Giving Up

Posted 11:07am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joel MacManus

A controversial proposal by Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill to build a new five star hotel in the Centre City has been rejected by a panel of independent commissioners, but the developer says he isn’t giving up, and hopes to put forward a revised plan soon. The original proposal was for Read more...

OUSA Election Report Details Complaints of Discounted Chocolates, Harassment, and Media Bias

Posted 11:04am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joe Higham

The OUSA Executive Elections had their fair share of controversy, and although Critic promised that we’d stopped talking about it, we lied. That’s because Kyla Mullen, OUSA’s Returning Officer for the election, has released her report, detailing the complaints she received and Read more...

OUSA Give Away Van For One Year After Lengthy Competition

Posted 10:58am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joel MacManus

Otago Student Will Bowsey is the proud new owner of a van for the next year, after winning ‘The Great Silver Bullet Giveaway’ last Tuesday. He will receive a free 12 month lease on the van, fully covered by OUSA insurance. The OUSA branding will be removed. Contestants had to keep at Read more...

Management of Change Proposal Could See Shakeup to Mental Health Treatment, Redundancies

Posted 10:53am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joe Higham

Seven staff at Student Health could be made redundant if a proposal for a Management of Change (MoC) process is enacted in its current form. The proposal was submitted by University of Otago’s Director of Student Health Dr Kim Maiai, and claims the changes will allow Student Health to Read more...

Execrable | Issue 26

Posted 10:50am Sunday 8th October 2017 by Joe Higham

Colleges Officer James Heath wanted to know why the Executive were not told about OUSA’s ‘Great Silver Bullet Giveaway’ event (OUSA Give Away Van For One Year After Lengthy Competition), in which the association gave away a van for one year to the person who had their hand Read more...

When Does Super Become Anything But?

Posted 10:32am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Charlie Hantler

“In this fall, this is very tough, in this fall I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.”   On 8 July 2010, LeBron James altered the NBA landscape. Not in any minor way – he does that on a daily basis, but in a significant way that we are Read more...

Post-election debrief: Dunedin North MP David Clark Speaks to Critic

Posted 10:25am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Joe Higham

Joe Higham: What are your thoughts on how the election campaign went? David Clark: It’s been a rollercoaster. When we began last November, we had a different leader and we had a plan we’d been working on for a couple of years, and it’s only a couple of months ago that we changed Read more...

General Election Purgatory: Filling the Void with Speculation

Posted 10:18am Saturday 30th September 2017 by George Elliott

We are at a stage where, for all the analysis, all the hearsay and all the expertise, things are just uncertain. It’s both frustrating and rapturous; plain and radical. Winston Peters, the leader of NZ First, is waiting for the special votes to be finalised on 7 October and is consulting with Read more...

OUSA Referendum

Posted 9:56am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Critic

The second OUSA Referendum for the year will be held between the 9th-11th October. For those of you who have questions or concerns about particular questions there will be a forum on Wednesday (4th October) at 12pm which will be held downstairs at the OUSA Clubs and Societies Centre on Albany Read more...

Opinion: OUSA Needs the Alternative Vote

Posted 9:50am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Joel MacManus

The OUSA Referendum, held between 9 and 11 October, will include a question about whether we should change the way we vote for future OUSA elections; giving students the chance to keep the current voting system, First Past the Post (FPP), or the Alternative Vote (STV), also known as Preferential Read more...

Te Roopū Māori Update

Posted 9:46am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Te Roopu Maori

Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā tauira o Te Whare Wānanga, On Wednesday 6 September, Te Roopū Māori sent 29 tauira to represent the University of Otago at Te Huinga Tauira o Te Mana Akonga. Te Huinga Tauira is the annual National Māori Tertiary Students’ Read more...

University of Otago Researchers Criticise ACC for Computer Model Trouble

Posted 9:42am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

Researchers from the University of Otago have criticised the new computer model that ACC uses to profile and target clients. The computer model uses risk predictions in order to profile and target clients as well as to help staff manage the claims that they receive. However, it has caused Read more...

Liquor Store Owner Claims Unfairness as Planned New Store is Denied

Posted 9:36am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Joe Higham

The Dunedin District Licensing Committee has denied an application for the opening of another Super Liquor store at the site of the former McDuff’s Brewery on Great King Street. The applicants, McCarthy Enterprises, have breached the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 on seven previous Read more...

Labour Landslide at University of Otago Polling Booths

Posted 9:29am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Joel MacManus

Preliminary election results have shown that a resurgent Labour Party dominated the vote at polling stations within the University of Otago. A total of 5,728 votes were cast at the three polling stations on campus, which included Unipol, the Link, and Otago Polytech. Labour romped home with 46.9 Read more...

National Comfortably Win Party Vote at Two Uni Campuses

Posted 9:25am Saturday 30th September 2017 by Joe Higham

With the General Election now over and provisional results in, we have a wealth of data on the attitudes and politics of the nation’s cities, towns and suburbs. The results from the nation’s university campuses provide an interesting snapshot of party preferences, and some of the Read more...

Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar’s Fallen Angel

Posted 11:24am Sunday 24th September 2017 by George Elliott

Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma), was once the Asian darling of the Western liberal order. She was a saintly freedom fighter who would bring democracy (and presumably free enterprise) to a Southeast Asian nation that had been ruled by military dictatorships since 1962. Read more...

Dunedin Channel 39 Survives Online

Posted 11:05am Sunday 24th September 2017 by Critic

A Critic article entitled ‘Local TV station Channel 39 is “Essentially Dead” – NZ on Air CEO’  was based on outdated information. While the statements quoted were correct, they did not reflect the changes Channel 39 had made to transform from a TV broadcaster to an Read more...

Otago Student Wins Brain Research Award

Posted 11:04am Sunday 24th September 2017 by Lucy Hunter

PhD student Ashwini Hariharan was awarded the Best Student Poster Presentation at the 35th Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research held in Queenstown between 1-6 September 2017. Hariharan’s research is in brain vascular dysfunction; problems in brain blood flow and Read more...