Just days ahead of the Penrith by-election, Premier Kristina Keneally, Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell and Greens leader Lee Rhiannon went head-to-head in cyberspace in what @Joe Hildebrand described as "confused, nonsensical and unproductive; perfect representation of NSW politics."
The debate lasted just over 30 minutes with @KKeneally (Kristina Keneally) claiming: "Twitter flattens democratic debate. Enlivens democracy. A great tool for discussion, info exchange," although others on the real-time networking site were less positive.
Anyone with a Twitter account could access the debate, including residents of the western Sydney electorate of Penrith, where a much-anticipated by-election takes place on Saturday.
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However, the politicians seemed to struggle to respond to genuine questions and were often swamped by tangential twitter discussions.
The general view seemed to be that it was little more than a poorly orchestrated PR exercise. @greencate tweeted "@KKeneally sounds like a talking campaign brochure so far", with @angryrantypants adding: "This isn't a debate its (sic) a propaganda shouting match".
@paris_cowan perhaps summed up the general mood: "Gov 2.0 fail".
Ahead of the debate Keneally described herself as an "avid new media user," and said she was "looking forward to the challenge."
Karyn Paluzzano resigned in May as the Labor MP for Penrith after admitting she misused public funds and lied to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) when she was formally interviewed.
