Letter From the Editor

Kia Ora,

Like all Chinese parents, mine source their news from WeChat. Their sole provider of medical advice, politics and ‘quality journalism’ is through this app. When my mum had an earache, she resorted to WeChat remedies rather than consulting my sister who is an audiologist. Their trust in this app is pretty problematic. There’s a lot of questionable Chinese propaganda circling, conspiracy theories and overly saturated motivational videos. But not all is bad. When I was in my second year of uni, living in Wellington, my dad would frequently send me WeChat

videos. For the most part I would ignore them. But one day my dad sent a video with the earth on fire as a thumbnail. The following message read in Chinese “The world is going to drown! Because the earth is getting warmer.” The year is 2017, and my dad has discovered climate

change.

I don’t want to throw shade at boomers (a lie), but they’re the living embodiment of strength in numbers. They have fucked up the planet for all of us, and just continue to do so without remorse. There’s literally so many of them that they’re continuously able to saturate every decision making body we have. They have a complete inability to distinguish fake news from quality journalism. They don’t understand how tax works (see the comment section on Labour's proposed tax increase on the top 2% of earners). And they bag all of their produce into single use plastic bags at Countdown (apparently these bags aren’t banned because they don’t have handles, excuse me?). We can agree that Karens are shit at most things. But they’re not shit where it counts: voting.

Voter turnout for youth in New Zealand is pretty shocking. In the last election only 69.27% of enrolled under-25s actually voted. That doesn’t even take into account all of those who are unenrolled. If you care about how your landlord treats you, your body, Māori rights and climate change you need to vote! Think carbon tax, clean rivers and deep sea oil drilling. Make sure to show up with your vote.

Students are the only people in our society who rely on borrowing to survive. This means we are incredibly vulnerable, and need policies in place to protect us. This year we successfully passed the new tenancy amendment bill for landlords and tenants. I think it is important to note that all 54 members of National voted against this bill alongside ACT and Independent. It is equally important to note that all members of Labour, Greens and NZ First voted to pass this bill.

Key points from “The Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill”:

• No more ‘no-cause’ terminations: Landlords will no longer be able to

evict a tenant with 90 days notice without reason

• Tenants can make small changes like hanging photos and baby

proofing without landlord consent

• Landlord must permit and facilitate installation of fibre connection

• A landlord who seeks to recover expenses from a tenant must first

provide an itemised account of the expenses to the tenant

• If the tenant requests the landlord to provide information relating to

the healthy homes standards, the landlord must, within 21 days after

the date of receiving the request, provide the information to the tenant

• Bonds may be no more than 4 weeks rent

• Rent can only be increased once a year

• Tenant selection can no longer be done via rental bidding

Of course I’m not telling you who to vote for. Rather, I'm encouraging you to vote in leaders who are empathetic and receptive towards our needs. This government has shown us what kind leadership can look like. But more can be done for marginalised groups and the environment. Show up this election.

Ngā mihi nui,

Rebecca