Our politicians love a PR opportunity to talk about their support for the queer community, but when the time comes to act, they hesitate again and again, writes Shaneel Lal. When I wake up every morning, I don’t look in the mirror and say, “oops, I’m trans, better fix that”. But in the summer of … Read more
Pill testing at New Zealand’s festivals will be legal this summer as the Labour government prepares to rush legislation through parliament. And, as Justin Giovannetti writes, the new law could signal more significant changes next year for the country’s drugs. Most of parliament is supporting Labour’s move to make pill testing legal, taking it out … Read more
More than a year after justice minister Andrew Little described New Zealand’s hate speech laws as ‘woefully inadequate’, nothing has come of the legislative reform that was promised. Warning: contains descriptions of racism, racist violence and racist images. Yesterday, the white supremacist terrorist who carried out the Christchurch mosque attacks was sentenced to life imprisonment … Read more
Our elected representatives are being worryingly complacent about the Public Service Bill, writes Tony Burton, but it’s part of a trend that should concern them. Public management systems determine what really happens when governments make policy decisions. It’s the boring, process-between-bureaucrats bit, of issues like education and health. Despite the Public Service Bill proposing to … Read more
The legislation soon to be signed into law allows the government to keep doing what it’s done so far – while also giving it controversial new powers, writes political editor Justin Giovannetti. The government is currently attempting to quickly push through legislation that provides ministers and police with sweeping powers to battle Covid-19 for years … Read more
Jenée Tibshraeny can forgive a genuine, if rather extraordinary, mistake, but the government’s lack of transparency around decision-making creates confusion at a time when we need confidence, she writes in a piece originally published on interest.co.nz. The creator of Veep, The Death of Stalin and In the Loop, Armando Iannucci, could’ve filmed a political satire … Read more
The seriousness of the restrictions we’re living under deserves a much sounder legislative footing, write law professors Andrew Geddis and Claudia Geiringer. They should have a clear, certain basis in law and be imposed through a transparent and accountable process. Let’s start with the good stuff. New Zealand’s “go hard, go early” lockdown approach looks … Read more
As parliament voted all but unanimously to pass the Zero Carbon Bill into law last week, climate change minister James Shaw credited Generation Zero for its very existence. Here, Jenny Coatham explains how the youth-led climate action group pulled off such a monumental task. Our generation has been described as having “climate anxiety” – a … Read more
The ban and buyback passed by a united parliament in the wake of the Christchurch massacre will achieve little in the long term unless accompanied by modernised gun regulation, writes Hera Cook. New Zealanders register their cars, they register their dogs. Why should they not register guns, which are designed to kill? Guns are uniquely … Read more
In the latest episode of On The Rag, based on the podcast of the same name, watch as Alex Casey, Michèle A’Court and Leonie Hayden tackle the issue of abortion and why the law has to change. In the fifth episode of our mana wāhine series On the Rag, Alex, Michèle and Leonie look at the … Read more
The government wants to call the vote on legalising marijuana a binding referendum but it isn’t a binding referendum, explains Graeme Edgeler. So, the government has announced a binding referendum will be held on the legalisation of cannabis? No. The government has announced a non-binding referendum on the legalisation of cannabis. They want to … Read more