Meet our new MPS - thanks to teen with a political thirst
For most teenagers the idea of spending the school holidays interviewing politicians might not sound like much of a break, but that’s not the case for 14-year-old Dan Moskovitz.
The Wellington High School student recently embarked on a quest to interview as many of the country’s new MPS as he could with the idea to create a podcast series – Meet the Newbies.
The ambitious task was inspired by Dan’s interest in politics and writing alongside a desire to learn more about the newest people tasked with representing the population.
‘‘It was legitimately a shower thought. I was thinking about how, after the election, there would be a lot of new people in Parliament and no-one would have a clue about who they are.’’
He bounced the idea off his dad, who gave the thumbs up, and after election day he began emailing the 32 new politicians to organise sitdown interviews.
‘‘These are the people who control a lot of things in my life and I wanted to learn more about who they are and what they do,’’ the teenager said.
‘‘I got just over half of them responding so I was pretty happy with that because obviously, it’s a busy time for them all.’’
So far, 10 episodes are available online, with a total of 16 planned. Each podcast is about 12 minutes in duration.
While he doesn’t want to play favourites in terms of his best interview subject to date, Dan says there have been some standouts.
‘‘Hamish Walker [Cluthasouthland MP] gave me a lift home after our interview so I hold him in quite high regard.
‘‘Also Chloe Swarbrick is an interesting one, given she’s the millennial voice in Parliament and if I had to pick a future leader of the Labour Party, I’d say [list MP] Kiri Allen.’’
Dan’s says he’s been careful to balance the political passion project with his schoolwork, with all the interviews completed during the most recent school holiday break.
While he goes into each interview with a set list of questions, the goal is to get to know each person in a short amount of time so flexibility is key.
He says while it can be a nervewracking to reach out to an MP, it’s important people feel comfortable doing so.
‘‘It’s not hard to meet your local MP. If you want to talk to them about anything just shoot them a line. They’re regular people so you shouldn’t be afraid to reach out, regardless of age.’’
With the majority of his Meet the Newbies series completed, Dan is already getting started on his next politically-minded podcast series, this time about how select committees work.
‘‘I know nothing about how they work so what I’m hoping to do is touch base with as many committees chairs as possible over the summer with the aim of getting a series up online in January.’’
❚ You can listen to Dan’s the Newbies series dan.moskovitz.co.nz. Meet at