So for reference, I’m still active as a moderator on Reddit, though I’ve pared back my work there to just helping facilitate these AMAs.

We’ve sent invites to every candidate for the upcoming BCC elections. Unfortunately so far, the only AMAs we have scheduled are from Greens candidates. One Labor candidate expressed interest and asked for more detail, but since providing that detail I haven’t heard back. The only independent Councillor also expressed interest, but wanted to know personal details of the moderators, which I wasn’t willing to provide over email, but did offer to meet in-person and talk over any concerns. Since letting her know that I haven’t heard back. The only reply I’ve gotten from any LNP candidates was one person who I suspect was trying to give me a polite “no”, but they left it ambiguous enough that it could have been a “we’re discussing it and will let you know when we have an answer”, so I played dumb and replied assuming the latter prodding them to give me an answer. Haven’t heard back.

We did the same thing at 2022’s federal election (every candidate in the greater Brisbane area and for the Qld Senate). There, we got at least one candidate most newsworthy parties, apart from the LNP. And when I say “most newsworthy parties”, yes, that includes One Nation and United Australia Party.

The one Labor candidate we got did it pretty early on and explicitly told me when I caught up with him in person afterwards that he had done it without getting approval from the party leadership, which earned him a lot of respect with me. His seat ended up being one of the closest races in the entire country, so the fact that both he and the Greens candidate did AMAs legitimately could have been the deciding factor in that race.

The one thing I would say is that I would encourage any voters to reach out to their local candidates and express their interest in seeing the candidate do an AMA. If they’re hearing it from multiple places, it might increase the chance that they do it.