A Green Party led study has revealed that students in Aotearoa-New Zealand are poor, cold, overworked, and depressed. Who knew? Findings from the People’s Inquiry into Student Wellbeing were released last week by Greens’ tertiary education spokesperson Chlöe Swarbrick, who launched the nationwide survey after political parties wouldn’t believe her that it sucks to be a student – namely National Party leader Chris Luxon, who said back in April that he ‘didn’t see a need’ for increasing the student allowance – ‘not unless we’re clear about the problem they’re trying to solve.’ Luckily for him, almost 5000 students clearly outlined the problem in their survey responses, which revealed that students were paying over half of their weekly income on rent, two thirds of students regularly couldn’t afford basics, and 64% of students skip class to go to work so they can afford to live. ‘We opened this inquiry when it was clear neither the Government nor the supposed opposition were interested in the real data or experiences of students on the ground,’ Chlöe says. ‘It’s time for a Universal Student Allowance, fees-free, free public transport, rent controls and a rental WOF.’ Honestly? Go off, sis. 

 

You may have seen political signs popping up around the Uni lately – it’s local body election time, baby! Voting for our Hamilton City Council electorates doesn’t open until September 16 this year, but that won’t stop signage from being erected, debates at the old folks’ centre being had, and some poor comms employee at Council copying and pasting this news piece from one email to another and wondering how this is their life now. Nominations to run for Council are open until August 12, and anyone can run – provided you have the $200 application fee, are ready to serve the interests of the business elite, and are willing to whinge about Three Waters to anyone that will listen. Stuff reports that our Mayor and queen Paula Southgate has already had some of her signage taken to with a craft knife, which is both rather unkind and weirdly aggressive. Only 39% of Hamiltonians actually voted in the local body elections in 2019, which just goes to show that if we all rallied together and voted for people that better serve the interests of young people in the Waikato, we could completely change the face of the Council – but we still won’t, though. We’ve got enough of our own shit to worry about. 

 

You’ve probably noticed, but the weather is more fucked than usual this winter around the world. Due to the ongoing effects of climate change, weather events are becoming more extreme on both sides of the bell curve. Here in Aotearoa, flooding has caused extensive damage to the South Island over the last few weeks, with RNZ reporting that parts of Otago and Canterbury were cut off after a storm ripped through roads and ‘sliced a bridge in half.’ Stuff also reports that residents of Lake Ōhau village were stranded after the only bridge to the area was washed away. Wind speeds of almost 200kph forced many flights across the country to be cancelled, which is probably a good thing because it doesn’t look like the rest of the world is faring that much better than we are. Waves reaching up to five metres high flooded homes and businesses in the Cook Islands, ‘American’ Samoa and ‘French’ Polynesia, and in Britain, residents are only just now discovering what air conditioning is as a massive heat wave revealed weaknesses in the country’s infrastructure, which was never designed to handle much of anything at all (kind of like British people in general). While changing your personal habits when it comes to pollution and plastic waste may save your soul, 71% of global emissions come from just 100 companies worldwide. Aren’t fossil fuels the best?