Prole Life

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013

Short of cash and facing a dreary job market, Jack Montgomerie put his BA(Hons) to good use and took on a series on menial factory jobs. From shaft-mastering, to sorting the crackers from the shitties, Jack faced a crash course in how the other half lives. “It’ll only be a few months,” I Read more...

TEU Fears Minister’s Uni Council Changes

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013

A lecturers’ union says it is afraid that Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce might shrink University Councils and stack them with ministerial appointees. The Tertiary Education Union’s (TEU) National Secretary Sharn Riggs says any changes replacing staff and student representatives with Read more...

Jones: Racist, Fascist Wanker?

Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013

Labour leadership candidate and self-described “kingmaker” Shane Jones has suggested that migration to Christchurch from other countries be restricted, and that beneficiaries be forcibly relocated and put to work in the city’s reconstruction. The list MP and former immigration minister told Read more...

Council to Railroad Cars Into Cycle Lanes

Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013

The Dunedin City Council looks set to implement a transport strategy focusing on cycling, walking and public transport in the downtown area. However, a group representing local businesses has accused the strategy of neglecting its needs, prompting a sharp online response from the Mayor. The Read more...

Acklin Calls It Quits After Nine Illustrious Years

Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013

Recidivist drink driver, Elvis impersonator and Dunedin City Councillor Bill Acklin has announced that he will not seek re-election when the city votes for its council in November. Cr. Acklin, whose business dealings have previously left him owing $190,000 to the Inland Revenue Department, told the Read more...

Christchurch Rebuild a Safety Shocker, Says Worker

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

A temporary worker in the Christchurch rebuild has alleged shocking health and safety lapses during his time there earlier this year. Ferdinand Schuster, a 20-year-old German student on his gap year, told Critic that he had been put at risk and injured due to unsafe practices on a number of Read more...

University Council Meeting

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

The University Council unanimously endorsed a strategic document as well as a flatting standards bill, and engaged in light-hearted banter at its meeting last Tuesday. Council Member Michael Sidey clapped when Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne told the meeting that her two-year Read more...

No Confidence Distraught as Tenci Wins By-Election

Posted 4:47pm Sunday 18th August 2013

OUSA has a new Finance Officer after Nick Tenci trounced loveable sock puppet No Confidence at the close of voting in last Thursday’s by-election. In the final count, the third-year Finance and Biochemistry student received 470 votes (81.31 per cent). “No confidence in these candidates” received 108 Read more...

Calling the Cranks

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013

While reporting the news, I’ve come to learn that some so-called “important” people will always be in demand for comment. Ministers, businesspeople and academics are forever having cameras and dictaphones shoved at their overexposed gobs. Meanwhile, more marginal characters get passed over for media Read more...

The GCSB Bill

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013

What is the GCSB?The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is, amongst other things, New Zealand’s external spy service. The intelligence agency was set up by then-Prime Minister Robert Muldoon in 1977. It was tasked with keeping government communications and computers secure, and spying Read more...