I’m interviewing Labour MP for Dunedin South, Clare Curran, on Friday as part of University of Otago Vote Chat. What would you like me to ask her? Clare Curran is a particularly interesting Labour Party MP. In many ways she embodies the current nature of the Labour Party, and so the conversation with her will hopefully bring up many illuminations about wider issues relating to the current and future party. [Read more below]
Certainly Curran is a very modern Member of Parliament – she blogs and tweets constantly. As a former public relations spin doctor and journalist, she places a huge emphasis on ‘communication’ – and hence she’s a leading proponent of online politics and doing things differently. I’ll be asking her a lot about her views on these new ways of doing politics. And what has happened to her intention to get Labour to do things differently? What happened, for instance, to her very impressive ‘OpenLabour’ project in which the party was going to consult meaningfully with the public in creating its new policies?
Because Curran was instrumental in setting up and running the Labour Party blog, Red Alert, I want to discuss with her the successes and failures of that model. And, of course, I’ll be asking her about her infamous Red Alert blog post that recently got her in trouble and led to her issuing a public apology. Therefore I’m sure Curran has a lot of insights into the pros and cons of using social media in politics.
And Curran has become acknowledged as perhaps the leading tweeting MP. So why does she spend so much time tweeting? And why does she prefer this method of communication over door-knocking in her electorate?
As a former journalist – and now the Labour Party’s spokesperson on Broadcasting – Curran has a lot of strong and interesting views on the state of New Zealand’s media. I want to delve into that topic. I especially want to challenge her about Labour’s past and future role in fostering (or ruining?) public broadcasting?
And because Curran has been particularly outspoken about the dumbing down of political debate and the trivialisation of important issues, I want to get her to explain whether she’s also been part of this trend with her high-profile campaigns about rugby jersey colours? And was her media stunt just about parochialism?
Obviously I’ll asking her all about her role as the MP for Dunedin South. Why did she want to represent that electorate? And wouldn’t she be better suited as a list MP? Certainly it sometimes seems as if Curran is a mismatch with the Dunedin South electorate. Although she grew up in Dunedin, she’s spent much of her adult life in other places – especially Australia – and although she lives in the Dunedin South electorate (in Portobello), she still comes across as more of a ‘Dunedin North’ style politico (a modern urbane intellectual, rather than an old-school Labour unionist). So I’m interested in how she’s gone about re-orientating herself to this type of electorate. Is that what all the constant talk about cheese rolls and Highlander jerseys is in aid of?
And how long does she intend to be the MP for Dunedin South? Her majority in the electorate is currently about 6,500 (down from her predecessor’s 10,000+ majority) so will she stay in the job if she loses even more of the majority in the upcoming election? Does she fear being rolled as the incumbent (in the same way that she rolled David Benson-Pope?)
What ambitions does she have in politics? Previously she’s refused to answer the question of whether she wants to one day be the Prime Minister? So what does she think now? Does she aim to be in Cabinet?
And as usual, we’re be asking a lot of questions about the politician’s personal ideologies, such as ‘where exactly does she fit on the left-right spectrum?’, ‘Does she support the introduction of gay marriage?”, ‘Does she support the legalisation of drug use?’, ‘What should be the purchase-age for alcohol?’, and so forth. And is she still an environmentalist? Is she a feminist? And in light of her opposition to Chinese workers getting Kiwirail contracts, is she a national chauvinist?
What motivates her in general? Curran has listed her role models as Martin Luther King and Gandhi. So I want to find out how these figures have impacted on the way that she operates and her own ideological politics.
What’s her background in leftwing politics in New Zealand? Why did she only join the Labour Party just prior to becoming an MP? What role has her background as a small business owner impacted on her politics? Similarly, as a member and past employee of unions, how has that shaped her politics? And what role does she see for unionism in the Labour Party, if any?
Finally, as a graduate of the University of Otago, I also want to delve into her time on campus. Why did she do Anthropology and History? How did these subjects help her career and political vocation? Where did she drink when she was a student? What does she think about so-called problems of student behaviour in North Dunedin? Does she think – like her colleague David Cunliffe – that we can probably afford to turn a blind eye to a bit of couch-burning fun?
If anyone has additional topics and questions that they want put to Clare Curran, 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.
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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.
If you want to watch the live-stream of the interviews, go here.
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.
