This has been noticed and endorsed by student leaders across the country. New Zealand Union of Students’ Association co-president, David Do was especially happy.

“Student debt will hit $12 billion this year. Policies that will help reduce the massive student debt held in our communities will have huge benefits for the country. It would assist graduates in becoming debt-free faster, help fill workforce shortages by keeping skilled workers in New Zealand, and would attract overseas-based graduates back home,” Do says.

The impact of student debt was gauged by a survey of students last week. It found the three highest factors affected by debt were the ability to buy a house, deciding when to go overseas and saving for the future.

NZF is merely the latest party to come forth with a policy against student debt, as the Greens, United Future and the Maori Party have also announced progressive anti-debt policies.

The criteria included broadcasting a TV line-up that promoted understanding of the diverse cultural background in New Zealand, while also featuring a significant Maori voice and New Zealand-produced programmes. In exchange for televising commercially unviable programming, TVNZ received $15million from the Government.

The charter’s demise has polarised opinion within Parliament. Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman believes the change to programming will be negligible.
“The removal of the charter will have little impact on what is shown on the screen. TVNZ will still screen content of relevance to a broad cross section of New Zealanders” he said. Coleman also stressed the opportunity TVNZ now has to focus solely on achieving their commercial goals.

On the other side of the House, Labour has been joined by the Greens in opposing the bill. Clare Curran, Labour’s broadcasting spokesperson, called the abolition “a huge shame for New Zealand.”

“Public service television in New Zealand died last night. The Government has failed to see the need and importance of state media” she said.

The charter was first established under Helen Clark’s leadership in 2003 and was subject to a review process when National took over. National abandoned the review and has had plans to abolish the charter since 2009.

The burger—bacon and cheese between two pieces of KFC’s signature chicken—triggered a cross-media frenzy of strong positive and negative opinions.

Many hungry students have ignored nutritional warnings and are flooding the stores to get their hands on one.

ACT on Campus sent representatives to KFCs in each of the country’s main centres to offer free burgers to the first five who approached them.

“Everyone should be free to buy food they enjoy. Equally, everyone should take responsibility for their own health and exercise,” ACT on Campus President Peter McCaffrey said.
There were even reports of students in Dunedin camping out to make sure they were first in the queue.

“We did have a guy and a girl camping out here because they wanted to be the first to try them. But, it got a bit cold for them and they went home after a couple of hours,” KFC Dunedin North manager Wendy Ellis confirmed.

Dubbed “a crime to food” in some circles, the burger actually has fewer calories than the Burger King Whopper.

It was a host city one-two with Auckland University winning the coveted shield and AUT claiming second. Victoria secured third spot, and the green and yellow army provided many sporting highlights for the University.

Vic took an early lead in the shield race with victory in debating, winning the event for a staggering 13th consecutive year. Other gold medals were accrued by a dominant women’s basketball team, the table tennis doubles team, the fencers, who returned with medals in four different events, and the ultimate team, who triumphed over Canterbury in an epic final played in atrocious conditions.

VUWSA president Seamus Brady was understandably delighted with Vic’s performance. “On behalf of VUWSA I want to give a huge thanks to all of the participants, the administrators and to our Team Manager, Melissa Barnard who held things together.” He said.

By all accounts, the games were not as ruckus as those of 2009, the last time we won the shield—but it is safe to say Vic athletes went hard on and off the field. The men’s’ basketball team hazed their newbies by making them do undie runs, while several athletes turned up to one morning of the games shirtless.

The team is also rumoured to have incited a whopping 42 noise complaints on one night of the games.

Salient was told that one doctor alone at the Student Health Centre had diagnosed five cases this year.

This sexually-transmitted disease mostly exists in the developing world, and it is rare in New Zealand. However, rates have been on the rise.

Medical Director of the Student Health Service Garry Brown states “universal adoption of recommended safe sex practices is the best step people can take to protect themselves”.

The chances of contracting syphilis can be slightly reduced by using a condom to separate the infected and protected areas, but the main method is to be in a monogamous relationship with someone who has already been tested.

Syphilis can be treated with injected or intravenous penicillin. If left untreated, it can be fatal.

The team of Sarah Wilson and Sam Humphrey travelled to Hong Kong after months of preparation to participate in the competition, and beat twenty other teams from around the Asia-Pacific region to the title. They were also awarded the second and third best oralists in the competition and the second best memorial. Wilson and Humphrey were the best team from the defendant side of the draw, beating India’s Hidayatullah National Law University, the best prosecutors, in the final.

The victory was made even more remarkable by the fact that the team had no national competition to prepare for the tournament, instead enlisting the help of Law School lecturers Alberto Costi and Joanna Mossop as coaches.

Ms Wilson was understandably ecstatic with the result. “We competed against India in the final, and were lucky enough to come away with the win. The competition was an incredible experience—the teams, the organisers, the judges, all had a passion for this area” she enthused.

She also went on to encourage others to get involved in the same team. “If you’re interested in this area, you should go to this competition. It’s more than worth the hard work” she said.

Stephen Hawking’s theory, constructed in 1973, stated that over trillions of years, black holes become smaller via a loss of particle radiation. In the final two or three seconds of their existence hundreds of tonnes of particle matter turns itself into energy, leading to an explosion far larger than that of any nuclear weapon.

Although no astronomer has ever seen such an explosion, Visser and his team believe that the effect is far more common than originally thought.
“We now believe there are a number of theoretically plausible objects in the universe that emit Hawking Radiation,” he stated.

Visser’s research has largely focused on the explosion period, and he believes that huge progress has been made in understanding this phenomenon.
“Our work has helped us to probe that period more closely and we have produced calculations that work down to the last few millionths of a second. However, a lot of unanswered questions remain.”

As if sensing our alarm at the possible ramifications for our planet, Visser finished by verifying that a Black Hole arriving in our solar system at the time of explosion was “very, very unlikely.”

The iconic 1840 agreement is often considered synonymous with the entire constitution. However, in his upcoming lecture at Victoria University, Professor Boast, one of the country’s most respected legal historians, will attempt to shed light on an extremely complex matter.
“It is often assumed that the Treaty of Waitangi was the only Treaty between the state and New Zealand’s indigenous population, making New Zealand unlike ‘multi-textual’ jurisdictions such as the United States,” he said.

He elaborates that there have been a plethora of other similar contracts since 1840—especially in areas like Rotorua and the King Country—which haven’t received the same recognition as the Waitangi agreement.

Professor Boast’s lecture is part of a series of inaugural lectures held on campus. Victoria Vice-Chancellor Professor Pat Walsh believes they are a celebration of the quality of Victoria’s professors, and also an opportunity for them to pass on their formidable knowledge.
Mr Boast’s lecture will be held on Tuesday 8 March at 6pm in the Hunter Council Chamber on the Kelburn Campus.

Rising dairy prices are a perennial issue for students around New Zealand, with the cost of staples like milk being almost unaffordable.

The plea for inquiry comes hot on the heels of Fonterra’s decision to freeze milk prices in 2011. While Green thinks this is a positive step towards solving the problem, they believe it is a temporary solution, with more action required in the long-term.

“There isn’t any real scrutiny of retail prices and how they are set in New Zealand,” Green food spokesperson Sue Kedgley said.

“We need much greater transparency into the pricing practices of the grocery retail sector, especially in areas like dairy where there is very little real competition.

“The Government must either launch a Commerce Commission inquiry immediately or agree to a Select Committee inquiry into dairy prices,”

The Greens supplemented their statement by examining the issue from their strong environmental standpoint.

Co-Leader Russel Norman stated that rising dairy prices would lead to widespread conversion of natural resources into the dairy industry, which would cause further damage to our already heavily-polluted waterways.

Student Martin Raudnic doesn’t believe that dairy prices are as big an issue as some would have us believe.

“People in NZ should stop complaining about the price of dairy products. They aren’t essential for us to survive—but given the general lack of poverty in NZ compared to developing countries, most people can at least afford dairy products if they are careful with their money.”

Victoria University recently announced its four latest Hunter Fellows, Roger Drummond, Leone Harkness, Peter Hughes and William Sheat OBE.

The Hunter Fellowship was established by University Council in 2003 and annually recognises those who have made significant contributions to Victoria University.

“Hunter Fellows are people who have made a substantial contribution to the advancement of Victoria University through a variety of activities relevant to the University’s strategic directions and interests,” says Vice-Chancellor Pat Walsh.

Walsh is pleased to be able to recognise the work of the four new fellows, whose fellowships will be presented in the Hunter Council Chamber on 18 October.

Drummond is Chairman of the Victoria University Foundation, which he has been involved with since April 2006. He has also undertaken consistent fundraising for the Boyd Wilson Field Upgrade.

Harkness founded the Friends of Hunter Society in 1977, an organisation which works to save the university’s iconic Hunter Building from demolition. After seventeen years, the building was re-strengthened and rebuilt. Harkness is still involved in the university through the Victoria Legacy Club, and has formerly served on the Wellington City Council.

Hughes has served as Chair of the Advisory Board of Victoria’s School of Government since 2007. In this position he has negotiated with a variety of different people in an attempt to improve the relationship between the university and the public sector. Through his positions on the Faculty of Commerce and Administration’s MBA Advisory Board, he has improved the university’s relationship with the business and government sectors.

Sheat has been involved for several decades in the creative strands of the university. Between 1954 and 1960, he produced Victoria’s annual capping revue. Since then he has been heavily involved in drama, especially through his founding trustee position of the Summer Shakespeare Trust, which supports the annual Summer Shakespeare Productions.