More action needed to make New Zealand smokefree by 2025

Posted 10:44am Sunday 8th May 2016

In 2011, the New Zealand Government decided to set a goal to have New Zealand smokefree by 2025, which is categorised as having fewer than 5 percent of New Zealanders smoking by 2025. Currently that number stands at 15 percent. Tobacco kills approximately five thousand New Zealanders every year Read more...

Asbestos discovered in University Dental School

Posted 10:36am Sunday 8th May 2016

Building material that could contain asbestos has been discovered in the ground floor of the Otago University Dental School on Thursday morning. Otago University exclusively told Critic on Thursday evening: “there is no risk to people in the building, but we are taking a cautious Read more...

Execrable | Issue 10

Posted 10:27am Sunday 8th May 2016

The week’s executive meeting began with OUSA finance officer Jesse Hall’s financial report for the academic year to date. Laura Harris concluded that the report was a “comprehensive overview” and Hall spoke of how it showed that OUSA are in a “solid financial Read more...

Otago University’s contribution to the World Wars

Posted 10:39am Sunday 1st May 2016

A week on from the ANZAC day commemorations, many of the emotive anecdotes, moving speeches, and poignant minutes of silence may largely be forgotten for another 51 weeks. New Zealand played a sizeable and courageous part in the wars, but how much of a part did Otago University play in the largest Read more...

What has NZUSA given OUSA?

Posted 10:32am Sunday 1st May 2016

Last October’s referendum saw the student body overwhelmingly vote for OUSA to remain members of the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA). Do OUSA need NZUSA or are they simply a hollow representative body? Linsey Higgins, NZUSA’s president, told Critic she Read more...

Green Island Landfill fire “under control”

Posted 10:37am Sunday 24th April 2016

A fire that broke out at the Dunedin City Council’s Green Island Landfill has now been extinguished without causing any damage to nearby property.  The initial blaze began in the early hours of Monday morning, before being reported to the Fire Service and the DCC at 3.20am. Council Read more...

Mental health counselling “pilot” under scrutiny

Posted 10:27am Sunday 24th April 2016

Critic has obtained information revealing a worrying situation in regard to the University’s handling of student’s mental health issues.  The counselling “pilot” scheme that the University of Otago has implemented recently has caused concern to some people, due to the Read more...

Otago’s Hepatitis C Centre Has Funding Cut As Government Lacks Necessary Empathy

Posted 10:21am Sunday 17th April 2016

Dunedin Hepatitis C Resource Centre Otago has recently had its funding cut by central government, leaving them needing to seek new funding streams or close their doors entirely.  The reason given by the Government for their decision is that “The Ministry of Health has taken steps Read more...

A Special Pass For God

Posted 11:13am Sunday 10th April 2016

Joe Higham discusses the exceptional treatment religion gets in the media, and how it turns us into hypocrites. It was 1988 and Salman Rushdie, a British-Indian author, was sat in a secure, undisclosed safe house somewhere in the British Isles, under overwhelming police protection. He was only Read more...

Eu Begins Deporting Refugees, Despite Plans Labeled “illegal”

Posted 10:41am Sunday 10th April 2016

On April 4, the Greek Police, along with the EU border agency Frontex, began the process of deporting almost all migrants and refugees from Greece to Turkey, thus removing them from the European Union.  The practicability of removing all migrants and refugees from Greece en masse has been Read more...