OUSA Exec: Kamesha Jones

Posted 11:29am Sunday 2nd August 2026 by OUSA Exec

For a long time, OUSA has been relatively apolitical in practice, on campus and in our strategic direction. However, over the last year, we have seen this idea begin to overturn. Seeds of political discourse internally, as well as better engagement with student politics, have grown into a more solid Read more...

Critic Chit-Chats with Chippy

Posted 9:33am Saturday 18th July 2026 by Gryffin Blockley

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins (the Chris nicknamed Chippy, not the other one), braved a Dunedin winter's day to come down to campus for Re:Ori’s Clubs Day. Critic Te Ārohi managed to snag a spot in the former Prime Minister’s packed schedule to talk about some of the key issues Read more...

Government to Tweak Climate Change Law

Posted 12:20pm Saturday 23rd May 2026 by Jack Evans

Amid a flurry of news from the Government, such as the cutting of fees free, and Judith Collins leaving Parliament (tofā soifua Judith), Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith has dropped a bombshell for the future of Aotearoa’s climate change response. Here is a quick explainer from Critic Read more...

Leary’s Theory for Better Mental Health Services

Posted 10:19am Sunday 10th May 2026 by Harry Almey

Ingrid Leary, Labour MP of Taieri since 2020, and Labour Spokesperson for Mental Health, recently sat down for her first-ever interview with Critic Te Ārohi. Young people consistently have ranked the mental health crisis and climate change as their top concerns for the future, so Ingrid wants Read more...

How to Decode Politicians: My (opinionated) 6-step guide to understanding their bullshit

Posted 9:55am Sunday 10th May 2026 by Saraia Allais

"Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel." — Ralph Waldo Emerson The Merriam Webster dictionary defines a politician as “a person experienced in the art or science of government. Especially: one actively engaged in conducting the business of a Read more...

OUSA Exec: Kamesha Jones

Posted 1:07pm Sunday 26th April 2026 by Kamesha Jones

I spend far too much time on Instagram reels. It’s true – though I wish it wasn’t. And while I’ve now cut myself off from the addictive political whirlpool run by an ‘unbiased algorithm’, it is truly hard to escape from politics online. Even true before-bedtime Read more...

Strait Talk: What’s Actually Going On in Hormuz?

Posted 1:24pm Sunday 26th April 2026 by Bella Bates

With TikTok explainers flying around and group chats spiralling, Critic Te Ārohi went straight to Professor Robert Patman to make sense of the escalating situation in the Strait of Hormuz. Patman, a Professor in the University of Otago’s Politics Department, specialises in international Read more...

Q&A with Q and Dave

Posted 1:42pm Sunday 19th April 2026 by Stella Weston

Qiulae 'Q' Wong believes that the “role of government is to look at the horizon and stand for that.” She’s sick of the divisive, “pendulum politics” that we see in New Zealand today, with governments undoing policy changes with every switch in power. Founded in Read more...

Politicians vs Professors

Posted 7:44pm Saturday 14th March 2026 by Te Awhirēinga Heperi

With an eager crowd watching and the sun shining overhead, a football game kicked off on Logan Park last Sunday, March 8th. Usually, that’d be nothing out of the ordinary. But if passersby cared to look a little closer, they’d see that gangly adolescent limbs had been traded with the Read more...

OUSA giving students a reason to engage

Posted 11:49am Sunday 8th March 2026 by Flynn Nisbett

OUSA is the green sign on the way into town, Clubs and Socs, and the people that run O-Week. That is what we are, but it isn’t all we are.  Some think OUSA should be just a service provider, steering clear of taking political stances in fear of alienating some. Others think it should Read more...