Jai Breitnauer

Jai Breitnauer has worked as a writer and editor for 18 years, and her passions include parenting, health, sustainability and vegan food. Social justice is at the core of her work. She lives in Auckland, with her architect husband and two dance-mad boys, one of whom has additional needs.

Science
May 20, 2019

The father and daughter facing a future without sight

May 20 - 26 is macular degeneration awareness week. The subject is a personal one for Grant Thompson and his daughter Donna, who have both been diagnosed the condition which can lead to blindness.

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Food
May 19, 2019

For the last time: veganism is not child abuse

Stories linking cases of extreme child neglect to plant-based diets are peddling dangerous rhetoric, writes Jai Breitnauer.

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Society
May 15, 2019

CGT is dead. But there are other ways to thwart a raging property market

Many people were disappointed about the government's abandonment of the capital gains tax plan. But is there an alternative that could still open up the property market to those currently priced out?

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Politics
May 9, 2019

I begged for help for my special needs child – and I got it. But there’s a catch

Jai Breitnauer wrote that she was at her 'wit's end' over a lack of funding for her child with autism spectrum disorder. Then the Ministry of Education stepped in. Is it a happy ending? Only sort of, she writes.

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Society
May 1, 2019

It’s time for Generation X to step up on climate change

Millennials and post-Millennials continue to have it out with the ever defensive Baby Boomers over the environment. Jai Breitnauer asks where are Gen X, and what can they offer?

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Society
Apr 12, 2019

Why are universities such a magnet for sexual assaults?

There's something about universities that make entitled young men feel safe pushing the boundary between consensual sex and rape – and it has to change, writes Jai Breitnauer.

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Society
Apr 1, 2019

A desperate plea from the parent of special needs child: we’re at our wit’s end

Children with special education needs and disability aren’t even getting the education they’re legally entitled to, let alone the one they deserve, and it’s about time the Minister of Education took ownership, writes Jai Breitnauer.

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Society
Jan 26, 2019

The things they left behind: Why campervans are costing our environment

A stream of overseas visitors has shown me how the NZ tourism industry needs to encourage more environmentally friendly behaviour, writes Jai Breitnauer.

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Society
Jan 19, 2019

Don’t Marie Kondo your life away

Should you have to take yourself apart and give yourself away, just to find out who you are?

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Society
Nov 3, 2018

The Sun ran a story about free-bleeding. What happened next won’t shock you

On Monday, a UK journalist published a piece in a national newspaper about her experience of ‘free bleeding’ – and a whole pile of men told her exactly what they thought about it.

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Parents
Aug 23, 2018

The treatment of teacher aides is a feminist issue

Poorly paid, with no job security and no formal career development, the mostly female profession of teacher aide has been badly treated for generations – and the knock-on effects are keeping others out of the workforce. 

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Parents
Feb 12, 2018

ECE isn’t free: How my family saves $8,000 a year

Spoiler alert: it’s by not having any kids in Early Childhood Education centres. Jai Breitnauer looks at whether 20 hours free in New Zealand is really free.

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Parents
Sep 14, 2017

‘School has been reduced to child care’: A principal speaks out

Jai Breitnauer speaks to her sons’ primary school principal Riki Teteina about teaching in New Zealand and the teacher shortage Bill English says doesn't exist.

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Parents
Sep 5, 2017

Pull your weight: If there’s two of you, you both need to parent

Jai Breitnauer talks about shared parenting in the 21st Century if you're a one mother, one father family.

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