S01E05 - Revisiting Election 2023 with Labour's PR Provider

Aotearoa Tomorrow

21-12-2023 • 44 mins

Hunch.co.nz

Welcome to Aotearoa Tomorrow. I’m Arthur Falls. Today we have Michael Goldthorpe, a managing partner of the PR firm Hunch. Hunch was involved in developing the Labour party’s PR strategy for their unsuccessful reelection campaign this year so hearing about how Michael views the campaign is really valuable. It is rare to get a deep analysis of any competition from a losing side and doubly rare to get one from a Public relations specialist as candid as Michael so this is a rare treat. I’ll quickly mention that Michael is a very strong Labor supporter so that colours his perspectives of events. He also uses the word “we” to refer to both Hunch and Labour’s activities. He’s on their team politically so it makes sense in a casual conversation about the election, which this interview was, but it can be a bit confusing because he also runs hunch which provides professional services to Labour. That’s a disclaimer I wanted to start with.