Opinion | Why New Zealand’s Abortion Laws Are Not Guaranteed
Written by Tia Deb The US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022 made headlines worldwide. In Aotearoa, this emboldened anti-abortion activists to protest the then-new Abortion Legislation Act 2020 (1News, 2022). While unsuccessful in their endeavour to repeal the act, the legislation is still not as protected as many might assume. […]
Opinion | Women’s Rights in Crisis: The Legal and Humanitarian Implications of Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
Written By Tilourshita Thiagu Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, Afghanistan was rewritten overnight with a series of decrees dismantling women’s rights. Girls disappeared from schools. Women vanished from workplaces. Public parks were emptied of mothers and daughters. With quiet efficiency, half the population was made invisible. No formal law issued this […]
Historical | You Make Me Do Too Much Labour: The Past, Present, and Future of Pay Equity Legislation
Written by Alicia Yong In May 2025, the National-led coalition government announced changes to pay equity legislation and policy which has been used to bring more equitable treatment to thousands of workers from many marginalised communities. It was the culmination of feminist activism over the twentieth century. By tracing the evolution of New Zealand’s pay […]
Explainer | From Shadows to Sentences: Key Changes in New Zealand’s Proposed Anti-Stalking Law
Written by Amelie Lim In an age where the boundary between attention and intrusion is increasingly blurred, stalking has become an elusive yet insidious epidemic in New Zealand (Williams, 2024). The constantly evolving nature of stalking has made it difficult to define and, subsequently, even more challenging to prosecute. In response to these concerns, the […]
Opinion | The Debt Crisis: Why Governments Must Face Fiscal Reality
Written by Liam Bendall One hundred trillion U.S. dollars is a figure so vast it defies comprehension. With that amount, you could buy Amazon 47 times over. You could end world hunger several times over. What may shock you, however, is that figure is roughly the equivalent of the combined government debt worldwide (International Monetary […]
Explainer | The 2025 Budget in a Nutshell
Editors’ note: all figures in the article can be found in the Summary of Initiatives document on the Treasury’s Budget2025 website. Written by Daniel Blundell The Government recently released their 2025 Budget, outlining where it will be spending New Zealanders’ money for the next fiscal year. For 2025/26, key aspects of the Budget include an […]
Explainer | Exploring the Regulatory Standards Bill
Written by Binoli Goonatillake Over its term so far, the coalition government has introduced a number of controversial bills, some of which have passed into legislation and some of which have not. The Regulatory Standards Bill, spearheaded by the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour, was introduced to Parliament on 19 May 2025 and […]
Opinion | A Losing Bet: Are We Doing Enough to Prevent Gambling Harm in Young New Zealanders?
Written by Yeonsoo Son The 2023/24 New Zealand Gambling Survey paints a stark picture of escalating youth vulnerability: approximately 26,000 individuals aged 15 to 24 now fall within the moderate-to-high-risk categories for gambling-related harm (Health New Zealand, 2025). One in three secondary school students have gambled before (Rossen et al., 2013), and disturbing reports have […]
Explainer | Legally Prescribed: The Medicines Amendment Bill in Plain English
Written by Niamh Henwood The New Zealand Government introduced the Medicines Amendment Bill to the House of Representatives on the 31st of March this year, with the aim of improving and streamlining access to medication, both for patients and medical professionals. But what is the bill amending? How will access be improved and streamlined? What […]
Opinion | A Salad Bar of Narratives: Deconstructing the Recent India-Pakistan Conflict, One Ideology at a Time
Written by Shreya Bakhshi April 22, 2025, began like any other spring day in Kashmir – pleasant, breezy, serene – until four men targeted and killed 26 Indian tourists in Baisaran Valley, Pahalgam. This attack was not the first, and as history suggests, will likely not be the last in the Indian-administered Kashmir valley. What […]