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I’m new to Dunedin, so naturally, I’ve gone to start my first of many years at Otago in a hall. When you arrive to your particular hall, they will most probably have a number of initiations for you; designed to break barriers, reduce homesickness, and make new friends. But there was one thing I did after our inaugural O-Week that worked an absolute treat in terms of this last point.

John Key visited a few weeks back, and I took it upon myself (with a number of people) to make his day a little less enjoyable. We initiated a rowdy protest that followed him around Dunedin, drowning out speeches and making his most junior cabinet minister look like he was going to shed a tear, or six …

Once fellow hallers had got a sniff of what I did, I was bombarded with praise and a large consensus of approval for what I had done.

It became clear that younger people were paying attention to politics, and largely had a view that the status quo didn’t sit well with them. Whatever you think of John, I’m just glad I could impress hundreds of students in my first few weeks here.