The Opportunity Party Lays Out Their Pitch To Students

Posted 12:41pm Sunday 23rd August 2026 by Daniel Gray

For a party with no sitting MPs, The Opportunity Party has been subject to extensive coverage coming up to this year’s election, and their polling is steadily creeping toward the five percent threshold they’ll need to enter Parliament in November. However, one criticism has been thrown Read more...

Opinion: If You Want Young People To Vote, Then You Should Probably Talk To Them

Posted 10:22am Sunday 16th August 2026 by Molly Smith-Soppet

It has been a big year for tertiary education in politics. Fees-free was cut, student support has been chipped away at, and somehow we are still expected to believe that young people feel politically represented. That’s why it’s a little rich when students actually ask our political Read more...

Politicians Make Their Pitch to Students at OUSA Leaders Debate

Posted 10:25am Sunday 16th August 2026 by Bella Bates

The OUSA Leaders Debate took place in Union Hall last Tuesday, and boy, was it a wild one. With twice as many audience members than seats, the student community showed up (some quite loudly), to watch the debate. OUSA sent invitations to eight party leaders on the 3rd of February, giving them seven Read more...

WWIII For Dummies

Posted 10:13am Sunday 16th August 2026 by Imogen Perry

Every other day it seems like World War III is about to kick off. Your average morning living in Ōtepoti consists of waking up, sleeping through 8ams, the temperature being cold as fuck, eating month old yogurt and scrolling through the news to see Donald Trump has bombed someone. Again. You Read more...

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...

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...