Columns

I wonder what I’ll do after the election. Have time to think, I’d imagine, or perhaps I’ll finally get around to watching The Wire. No doubt by the time the next election has rolled around, the stress-induced mania will have faded into an aching nostalgia, and I’ll be left wishing for the first door knock of the season.

It hasn’t been easy balancing a dissertation, Critic, and an election campaign, but I like to think that if I were to have my own biopic, it would end with a low-angled, crossed-arms shot and the words “she survived” flung across the screen in all-caps.

Part of the difficulty was, without a doubt, the accusations of bias being an epilogue to everything I’ve written. On balance, I’m not surprised. Student media has traditionally been left leaning, if only for the intense focus it has on student issues. As you’ll see in Critic’s election analysis (page 20), this generally makes for encouragement towards parties that offer a broad support base. I have never pretended not to sit to the left and, to be fair, I genuinely believe it would be impossible for anyone to present a year’s worth of election coverage without their opinion somehow seeping through.

If you really want to kick up a fuss then let’s be realistic: the right has the mainstream media (hello, New Zealand Herald); let the left have Critic.

There are a number of issues to consider in understanding the way I’ve covered the election, however, and I’ve found that largely my reaction to various people depends on entirely how they are at the time. As it happens, I’ve strived to talk to people from as many parties as I could find; seven party leaders and one should-be party leader makes for, I think, a diverse spread. Incidentally, it’s mostly parties on the left that I’ve regrettably not been able to squeeze in.

But the accusations have gone further and deeper than a letter to the editor or two, and I’ve never been comfortable with the level of personal insult that I’ve received throughout the year. Although those at fault have sometimes apologised, I don’t think it’s ever okay to make wildly inappropriate comments via Facebook or in person simply because you know someone.

Moreover, it’s hard to have a framework favourable towards National when National politicians refuse to talk to Critic. Steven Joyce, whose job it is to ensure our welfare, has acted like we simply don’t exist; he’s treated OUSA the same. Student media’s job is to be critical, and I don’t think the answer to being called out is to ignore our opinion as though it’s nothing more than children shouting into the dark.

Labour springs to mind as the party who most cared that we met their politicians. A phone call here, an email there, and I was instantly aware of when an MP or candidate was in town. I didn’t manage to speak to all of them, but I commend them immensely on their respect for how seriously I’ve taken this task.
Even beyond Joyce, National as a whole was abnormally silent. I remember finding out that John Key, Bill English, and Maurice Williamson were all in Dunedin on the same weekend, and I had no idea. Just being able to follow them around for half a day would have made for a profile that, I think, most students would appreciate for the simple fact of being able to know who these people might be.

I think this is indicative of a broader issue; the idea that silence is enough to get students to follow you blindly to the polling booth. This is dangerous, because it indicates these parties don’t value the input of a core demographic in society. I’ve seen real passion for student welfare all across the board, from Colin Craig, who hung out in the Critic office for half an hour to chat, to Laila Harre, who spoke with such intensity at the importance of education I temporarily fell mute. I wish I’d seen this from Joyce, or any prominent National ministers.

In the end, I won’t tell you who I think you should vote for, because I think it undermines the extent of the coverage I’ve attempted to present to you throughout the year. There are issues left, right and centre to consider, and the way you balance them will no doubt frame the way you enter the voting booth. My entire goal this year has been to bring these issues, and how they’ll affect you, to light.

As my coverage draws to a close, all that’s left is to add a final note of opinion. The depravity of the election landscape this year is not an endpoint, and the links between negativity and apathy make it all the more important to understand the puppet show that the Beehive conducts. Your lives – every aspect of them – have the capacity to be affected by this election. Until accountability and transparency are issues screamed so loud no one can hear over them, nothing will change; it’s your opportunity and your responsibility to add to the discourse.

Really, the cover says it all. Just fucking vote.

Carys out.

Carys Goodwin
Critic Politics Editor