Rachel Stewart
The New Zealand Herald has more than 200 journalists across the country, bringing you the stories that matter on our website and app, in print and across our social media platforms.
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Check out Rachel’s latest content
Rachel Stewart: Farm leaders in dance over freshwater plan
COMMENT: Finally long-delayed "action plan for freshwater" discussion document has arrived
Rachel Stewart: Nope, I'm not taking a guilt trip in my V8
COMMENT: Gripe about my dream car and I'll rip the Velcro off your Tevas.
Rachel Stewart: Fate of Fonterra - don't say you weren't warned
COMMENT: Years have been spent ignoring fact Fonterra was heading toward the rocks.
Rachel Stewart: Monty Python or Shakespeare - tragic theatre of the Greens
COMMENT: State of the climate begs the question - what good are politicians anymore?
Rachel Stewart: Get disconnected - you'll find real world again
COMMENT: Time's precious, there are things to see before the lights go out.
Rachel Stewart: Dinosaurs keep hawking past as Godzone's future
COMMENT: A clear vision of agriculture in NZ will not be forthcoming from usual suspects.
Rachel Stewart: Everyone has a right to tell their truth
COMMENT: It's my absolute right to express an honestly held opinion, even if it offends.
Rachel Stewart: Why Judith Collins deserves a chance to be PM
COMMENT: JuCo is a deeply maligned politician.
Rachel Stewart: Rail on track but climate challenges ignored
Comment: When will Government change their emphasis on solving the biggest crisis of all.
Rachel Stewart: Hounds of left are woke and I'm running scared
COMMENT: Govt cronies hate dissent and are eyeing speech laws.
Rachel Stewart: Forget Mars - clean our mess up first
COMMENT: I don't want to go to Mars. I want to get Earth fixed.
Rachel Stewart: Earth is heating up and activism will too
COMMENT: The environmental movement, like every other movement, is changing dramatically.
Rachel Stewart: Dignified death of a feisty farm cat
COMMENT: This isn't really a column about my dead cat, though it might appear that way.
Rachel Stewart: Outlook grim despite the allure of denial
COMMENT: Species extinction and extreme weather are only going to get worse.
Rachel Stewart: Owning firearms a privilege not a right
COMMENT: Whatever Govt decides, I am fully prepared to relinquish my semi-automatics.
Rachel Stewart: Can we separate the art from the artist?
COMMENT: I don't believe you can rewrite history. It's already made.
Critics' hate speech ensures Jordan Peterson stays popular
COMMENT: Peterson is bringing the degradation of public discourse into sharp relief.
Rachel Stewart: Fry me a river, climate denialists
COMMENT: There's no ignoring what's happening with the weather all over the world.
Rachel Stewart: I'm back and I'm not staying quiet
COMMENT: I am rebranding as the only columnist any rational person will ever want.
Rachel Stewart: Environment, Facebook, free speech among big issues of 2018
COMMENT: Rachel Stewart looks back on 2018.
Rachel Stewart: TERF wars - a derogatory term to shut down debate
COMMENT: All human beings deserve human rights and respect.
Rachel Stewart: Why today's feminists leave me underwhelmed - and males contented
COMMENT: Today's 'feminists' generally leave me underwhelmed.
Rachel Stewart: 'Trump of tropics' latest psycho in club
COMMENT: Rise of Brazil's Bolsonaro next step in far-right's troubling march.
Rachel Stewart: Climate - Don't say I didn't warn you
COMMENT: It needs WWIII to turn this overloaded, burning, sinking global ship around.
Rachel Stewart: Drums of water war echoing in pipeline
COMMENT: Minister's lack of action on vital resource letting council dig in defences.
Rachel Stewart: Women must unite against hard-line patriarchy
COMMENT: Kiwi women are eye-wateringly over-represented in domestic violence statistics.
Rachel Stewart: Fed up with over-sharing
COMMENT: 'Confessional' female writers setting feminism back generations.
Rachel Stewart: Animal cruelty – a storm is coming
COMMENT: If you're shocked now, your hair will soon curl.
Rachel Stewart: Why kill animals after an 'attack'?
Comment: Animals attack us when we invade their space and we need to realise this.
Rachel Stewart: Signs of a stressed-out dairy industry
COMMENT: If farmers don't find a new way forward soon, they'll feel more alone than ever.
Rachel Stewart: Same-sex and proud - let them eat cake
COMMENT: There will be many more bumps on the road to gay wedded bliss.
Rachel Stewart: Time for dry July
COMMENT: The more I drank the more I could handle it. Time to give it a break.
Rachel Stewart: We cannot bury our heads in the silence
COMMENT: Our approach to suicide isn't working very well.
Rachel Stewart: Why I've come to love those cows
COMMENT: Studies show cows have personalities and emotions, just like cats and dogs.
Rachel Stewart: Farmers angry with MPI over Mycoplasma bovis
COMMENT: MPI chief fighting Mycoplasma bovis says previous column hit close to bone.
Rachel Stewart: Ministry's cunning plan fails again
COMMENT: Farmers should have acted sooner but MPI should have too.
Rachel Stewart: Why the 'h' do they bother?
Councils have perfected pretending they're doing something meaningful about water quality
Rachel Stewart: Why the 'h' do they bother?
COMMENT: Some of dullest minds in the country found at local government tables.
Rachel Stewart: The sun has already set on oil
COMMENT: Industry anger with Govt baseless given global shift away from fossil fuels.
Rachel Stewart: Death part of the cycle of life
COMMENT: Death notification app is not for all tastes but it keeps things in perspective.
Rachel Stewart: Journos, feel heat on warming
COMMENT: As weather gets worse, writers need to step up.
Rachel Stewart: Breaking free from addictive web
COMMENT: Online technology is hugely important but too much can be detrimental.
Rachel Stewart: Carping at movie deeply misguided in flawed world
COMMENT: Three Billboards film has drawn flak for lack of neat ending — but that's life.
Rachel Stewart: Yee-ha! Rodeo is doomed
COMMENT: So, we all know in our hearts that rodeo is wrong.
Rachel Stewart: Boy racer noise drowns quiet country life
COMMENT: Why do we have to put up with these stupid antics?
Rachel Stewart: I got end-of-humanity blues
COMMENT: Hard to feel jazzed about 2018 knowing Earth and its denizens are on brink.
Rachel Stewart: Media gorging on racist, sexist views
COMMENT: We shouldn't be publishing opinions which are based on racist or sexist attacks.
Fonterra's spin makes me want to throw up
COMMENT: Fonterra's waterways plan requires a bucket, writes Rachel Stewart.
Climate of change for the Defence Force
OPINION: Climate change is likely the biggest threat to national security we face.
Rachel Stewart: BigAg must wake up to synthetic threat
COMMENT: Artificial milk and meat pose huge risk to farming industry.
Rachel Stewart: Basking in glow of bright Ardern era
COMMENT: What's it going to be like while writing under the influence of optimism?
Rachel Stewart: Why is our road toll such a disgrace?
COMMENT: I have a strong suspicion that another dynamic is at play.
Rachel Stewart: We're all feeling the squeeze
Opinion: Perfect potpourri of planetary problems is upon us.
Rachel Stewart: Life-affirming jaunt feels good
COMMENT: Attending gala opening night of Pleauredome mattered to me on a number of levels.
Rachel Stewart: I'm not afraid of big bad Winston
COMMENT: Peters has always demonstrated a willingness to do a deal, says Rachel Stewart.
Rachel Stewart: Why women will decide this election
COMMENT: Labour's leader is aspirational for women and won't pull ponytails.
Rachel Stewart: Don't feel sorry for farmers
COMMENT: National is talking up the urban-rural divide to get votes, says Rachel Stewart.
Rachel Stewart: Men in suits scariest gang of all
COMMENT: Out here in the real world things are not so black and white.
Rachel Stewart: That's right polluters, it's time to pay
COMMENT: There is overwhelming public support for a water royalty, says Rachel Stewart.
Rachel Stewart: Ardern oasis in political desert
COMMENT: Labour leader's magnetism has not been seen since Clark and Lange.
Rachel Stewart: Hysteria over water policy pitiful
COMMENT: Labour's water policy is not as difficult to understand as you might think.
Rachel Stewart: Greens can't blame media
Comment: Turning Turei's pronouncement into a virtuous act of heroism is way off the mark.
Let's hope the mud festival is clean
COMMENT: NZ is importing mud from South Korea where foot and mouth disease has occurred.
Rachel Stewart: Councils must walk climate talk
COMMENT: Is your local council doing enough about mitigating effects of climate change?
Ugly and brutal: this election could be a killer
COMMENT: Will New Zealanders emotionally survive the campaign, let alone the result?
Rachel Stewart: Dad's illness and Trump
Experience of father's gradual decline has parallels with unstable behaviour of Trump.
One party has guts to tackle water
COMMENT: Opportunities Party has policy that makes sense.
Let's play 'who will save the baby'
COMMENT: If a child was about to drown, would any of our political leaders act?
Rachel Stewart: I need my nihilism
COMMENT: How to make sense of a world that no longer makes any sense.
Doomsday clock ticking for birds
COMMENT: Tourist boss is silly to say visitors come for scenery, not wildlife.
Stewart: Beaten down by radio ads nauseam
COMMENT: Could you live without advertising? Oh, dear God, how I could.
Stewart: Tax scattered on the floor
COMMENT: In summation, it's a dud. It's squarely aimed at the looming election.
Rachel Stewart: Why I'm not positive
Rachel Stewart explains why she's not going to be positive just to please chirpy men.
Rachel Stewart: How to tarnish tourism glow
COMMENT: Quantity over quality will turn round to bite tourism industry.
Fighting until cows come home
COMMENT: Dairy farmers and industry mouthpieces love to say they are environmental angels.
Stewart: Sour old men love bitter whine
Comment: Elderly, white males are as pesky, autumnal flies for Rachel Stewart.
Are we in the final days of democracy?
COMMENT: Democratic values appear to have entered a death spiral, writes Rachel Stewart.
Stewart: Thrill of flight never leaves
COMMENT: The sense of wonder, of rising above it all, never gets old, says Rachel Stewart.
Clarke made us appreciate ourselves
COMMENT: John Clarke's genius was what made him distinct, writes Rachel Stewart.
Rachel Stewart: Make the polluters pay
COMMENT: I've always suspected NZ's scarcity of environmental enforcement was willful.