I’m interviewing New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at 11am today as part of University of Otago Vote Chat. What would you like me to ask him? “I think Winston Peters should be in Parliament. I wouldn’t vote for him, but it’s a bit of a shame that he’s not there anymore”. That seems to be a common sort of feeling I hear expressed, and it’s one I have some sympathy for as well. So this year is either Winston Peters’ great comeback or his swansong – and therefore I want to explore that with him. What are the factors that are holding his party back? But lessons has he learnt from decades of politics? Why has his political career and the project he was building ended in failure? If anyone has additional topics and questions that they want put to Winston Peters, please let me know – or participate on the Twittersphere in realtime (see details below). Of course, I may not be able to use all the questions you suggest, but it’s helpful to get ideas from others and it’s useful to know what topics you find particularly interesting.
The University of Otago Vote Chat takes place every week until the general election. The interviews occur in front of a public audience at the University of Otago Media Production studios, where the conversation is filmed for livestreaming on the internet and as a podcast for iTunes.
The intention is to make these political meetings rather different from the usual stage-managed and bland affairs that can happen during election campaigns. So there’ll be lots of challenging and quirky questions, and the MP won’t be allowed to revert to simply giving the usual well-rehearsed campaigning speech. The audience can help by heckling, cheering, or merely tweeting their reaction and questions to the Twitter feed – using the hashtag #OUVoteChat2011 – which will be projected up on the lecture theatre screen.
If you’re in Dunedin there is still the ability to come along and participate and/or watch – but seating is limited to about 45 or so – so turn up early. The Media Production Studio is on the 2nd floor of the Owheo Building, 133 Union Street East (Cnr of Union Street East and Forth Streets). You can see a map here:
http://mydeology.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/owheo-map.png
If you want to watch the live-stream of the interviews, go to:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/its/mediaproduction/streaming/mpstudio.html
Some weeks there will be more than one politician. Next week, the Vote Chat participants will be Winston Peters and Carol Beaumont. Future politicians include Phil Goff, Bill English, Tau Henare, and Grant Robertson. To keep up with all the detail, there’s a Facebook “Vote Chat 2011” page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vote-Chat-2011/171597062912728
