It’s true that a vast majority of policy commitments in Australian politics are made during election time. Political parties spend the three months ahead of each election making promises, and then spend the next three or four years delivering (or sometimes, failing to deliver) those promises.
So we’re determined in the lead up to the state election to make sure that environmental issues are at the front of every aspiring politician's mind, and in the must-have of every voter. And we want to give everyone a chance to have their say on the state of our environment – even our politicians.
The chat will canvas the state of play for the environment in the lead-up to the state election, discuss the environmental credentials of the parties and pick apart the implications of the policies currently on the table for Victoria’s environment. And much more of course!
A Twitter Chat is a pre-arranged conversation that occurs on Twitter through the use of tweets that include a predefined hashtag (#electionchat). This hashtag links the chat tweets in a virtual conversation that others can follow and participate in. Pretty sweet.. we know!
Even though we’ve selected the topic for this chat, we haven’t picked all the questions that will guide our conversation! So, we’re relying on you to lead the way. Just add your question or comment here before the chat, or send us a direct message to @5MillionPeople on Twitter.
Also, we’d love any ideas you have about the topic as well as any resources, examples, research or anything else that takes your fancy..
1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a Twitter account (it’s free).
2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com and type in #electionchat. Or if you’re feeling brave, check out the TweetChat program – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat, promise.
3. Then simply jump in to the conversation by adding #electionchat anywhere in your Twitter message (or Tweet as the folks like to call it).
1. #electionchat will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. @5millionPeople will direct this conversation and keep us all in check and on time.
2. Please introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
3. Stay on topic!
4. Be cool.