Keeping tabs on the Exec | Issue 18

Posted 10:42am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Joe Higham

After the various procedural matters were out of the way, Education Officer Bryn Jenkins formally announced that he will be running for the position of OUSA Executive in the upcoming election. As far as Critic knows, he is the first to publically state his intention to do so. The nominations Read more...

Wifi Among Changes Aimed at Bringing Dunedin’s Buses into the 21st Century

Posted 11:46am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Joe Higham

The Otago Regional Council (ORC) has announced that it will be installing Wifi in their fleet of 80 buses around late September, among a raft of other changes. ORC Manager Support Services Gerard Collings told Critic that the council has had “many community requests for Wifi over a long Read more...

Queer and Far New Support for International Queer Students

Posted 10:44am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

OUSA Student Support have initiated a new support service targeted at international University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic queer students. Named Queer and Far, it will provide a support and talking group. The project was conceived by the current OUSA Queer Support Co-ordinator Hahna Briggs, in Read more...

Is Sky TV About to Be a Thing of the Past for Sports Broadcasting?

Posted 11:49am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Charlie Hantler

Yesterday, on 2 August, the sports broadcasting landscape changed permanently, as Amazon outbid Sky TV in the UK for the rights to tennis’s ATP World Tour. The biggest event in tennis outside of the four Grand Slams, it is believed that the e-commerce titan paid NZ$17.8 million for the rights. Read more...

Dunedin Mayor Cull Doesn’t Apologise, Pays Councilor $50 Large

Posted 10:46am Sunday 6th August 2017 by Joel MacManus

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull has paid $50,000 to fellow councillor Lee Vandervis to settle a defamation claim filed against him in July of last year, although he did not offer a public apology. At a council meeting in December 2016, Cr Vandervis claimed that there were issues with underhanded bribes Read more...

Poland Pulls Back from the Authoritarian Brink after Protests and EU Condemnation

Posted 11:16am Sunday 30th July 2017 by George Elliott

Poland, once the poster child of the post-1989 democratic wave against communism in Europe, has been going through rough political times. Thousands of Poles have flooded city streets to protest the government’s continued effort to limit the independence of the country’s judiciary. Read more...

Household Income Report Reveals No Sign of Change for Poorest Families

Posted 10:51am Sunday 30th July 2017 by Joe Higham

A Ministry of Social Development report has revealed that the cost of housing in New Zealand remains a significant impediment to lifting people out of poverty. The Household Income Report (HIR) highlights that, although poverty has declined in the ten years since the Global Financial Crisis, Read more...

Opinion: The Deliberate Flouting of the Crimes Act at Auckland’s Drury Christian School

Posted 10:56am Sunday 30th July 2017 by Jean Balchin

Last year, I wrote an article on the horrors of Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), a fundamentalist American homeschooling programme being taught in homes and schools across New Zealand. I discussed how ACE upholds the belief that the Bible is literally true, that there should be no distinction Read more...

Authentic Fakery: Who is the new US ambassador to New Zealand?

Posted 11:22am Sunday 30th July 2017 by George Elliott

It’s more obvious when an American is not being genuine. They can’t hide it from us. Chiefly, it’s the accent. We’re so conditioned to hearing it try and sell us things. If the transatlantic Beeb accent broadcasts the truth with authority, the piercing North American accent Read more...

Building Code Causes OUSA To Scale Back Gender Neutral Toilets

Posted 10:32am Sunday 30th July 2017 by Zahra Shahtahmasebi

Earlier this year, OUSA chose to make the toilets in the Clubs and Societies building on both the ground and first floors gender neutral. In 2013 the Clubs and Socs Centre underwent extensive renovations, which included the ground floor toilets. However, in 2016, OUSA staff noticed that there Read more...