I’m interviewing Act MP, Heather Roy, on today as part of University of Otago Vote Chat. What would you like me to ask her? The Vote Chat series of interviews at the University of Otago normally involves a conversation with a politician seeking votes at the upcoming general election. And while Heather Roy is part of the Act Party campaign in 2011, she probably isn’t doing many media interviews or much door-knocking. After all she’s retiring after a particularly tumultuous parliamentary term that has involved scandal after scandal within her own caucus alongside internecine internal warfare. She’s probably very pleased to be departing – especially due to the way that certain colleagues have treated her. So that’s the major area that I want to canvas in my discussion with her. But what else should I ask? [Read more below]
In the Vote Chat series, we try to cover a wide range of political issues, from the most serious to the quirkier. So on the one hand I might ask her about the motion passed by the New Zealand Young Nationals Southern Regional AGM that ‘the meeting note Heather Roy as a “milf”’. And on the other hand I want to know what she thinks of the 1984 election manifesto of Bob Jones’ New Zealand Party.
This might seem like a rather strange topic to be asking a retiring Act Party MP in 2011, but it has a very serious point. That because I’m interested in discussing the decline and near-death of the Act Party, and in particular the ideological underpinnings of this failure. Why has a party that was originally viewed as being so dynamic and radical ended up being rather ideologically indistinct and lost? Why has it moderated so much of its original raison d’etre? And, in particularly, why has a party that labels itself ‘the liberal party’ become so socially conservative?
So in light of this I’m interested in comparing the sad ideological state of the Heather Roy’s Act Party to that of the party that she originally joined back in 1983 – the New Zealand Party. This is where Roy cut her political teeth (and met her husband).
This mid-1980s party showed that you can be radically economic rightwing as well as radically social liberal and still get 12% of the vote (even under FPP). So I’m interested in why people like Roy haven’t wanted Act to be more like the New Zealand Party.
The New Zealand Party espoused a radical change of direction for New Zealand society. The party was most well-known for its libertarian and anti-state political platform which condemned the welfare state and preached freedom from economic regulation and taxes.
Significantly, the party also had very liberal and far-reaching policies on social and moral issues – which distinguished it from new right parties in other countries that were more authoritarian or populist. The party was remarkably radical on issues of personal freedom, strongly advocating women’s right to abortion, the availability of contraception, and the legalisation of drug use and other behaviour that they labelled ‘victim-less crimes’. The party was also anti-censorship. These mostly libertarian positions on social issues dovetailed with the party’s liberal economic policies. In foreign policy, the New Zealand Party not only endorsed a nuclear-free policy that was more radical than the Labour Party’s, but they advocated a position of unarmed neutrality for New Zealand, effectively disestablishing the defence forces and officially pulling out of ANZUS. The New Zealand Party was also seen as utopian on education issues, expounding that much more money be spent. Likewise, the party was radical in favouring substantial government involvement in the arts. They also emphasised environmental and quality-of-life issues.
So Roy’s 1984 New Zealand Party sounds incredibly different to her 2011 Act Party. And so I want to see what she thinks of that comparison. And generally I want to ask her about the big question of ‘What went wrong?”
As well as that, I’ll be asking some of the usual questions that I’ve been asking other MPs – about gay marriage, inequality, issues of ethnicity, drug reform, and alcohol use.
And of course, I’ll be asking about the big issues of Voluntary Student Members bill and Nationals proposed legislation to retrospectively legalise police covert video spying.
If anyone has additional topics and specific questions that they want put to Heather Roy, 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:
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?q=133+union+street+east+dunedin&hl=en&sll=-41.244772,172.617188&sspn=37.305694,86.572266&vpsrc=0&t=m&z=16
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/VoteChat2011
