The Opportunities Party

The Opportunities Party (usually referred to as TOP) is a centrist political party based in New Zealand. It was founded in 2016 by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan and is today led by Raf Manji. The party is based upon an idea of "evidence-based policy", with policy priorities of "Universal Basic Income (UBI)", "Affordable Housing and Rent", "Smart Small Business", and "Climate Friendly Recovery".

The party received 2.4% of the party vote in the 2017 general election, after which Morgan left the party. It received 1.5% of the party vote in the 2020 general election. The party won elected office for the first time in the 2022 New Zealand local elections, with one member elected to the Featherston Community Board in the South Wairarapa District.

Policies and principles

TOP lists its policies on its website. For the upcoming 2023 New Zealand general election, these include:

$6.35 billion in tax cuts, paired with a restructuring of the current tax bracket system which will include a 'tax-free threshold of $15,000, following by a big tax cuts for middle income earners who would only paid 20% tax in income earned between $15,001 and $80,000.' This is a part of TOP's 'Tax switch' to decrease income taxes and replace them with Land Values Taxation.

The introduce a land value tax (LVT) of 0.75% - a small annual tax paid on the value of urban residential land, excluding improvements. TOP estimates the land value tax will raise approximately $7 billion, paying for the cuts in income tax, making the plan fiscally neutral. Commercial, rural, conservation and Māori land will be excluded from paying the land value tax. This tax is designed to decrease land speculation.

* A 'universal basic income' (UBI) of $16,500 per year for all adults above the age of 18 and a child UBI of $2,340 per year, with a flat tax of 35% on all income from all sources for all entities, to simplify & modernise the tax system for an unstable future of work with the advance of Automation and Artificial Intelligence.
* A minimum tax on the equity of property, called a 'property tax'. This would bring property into the tax system in a way that stabilises the property market, comparable to other models such as Japan's property tax, and Germany's property taxes ''(Grundsteuer)''. TOP proposes property tax could be used to reduce the burden of income tax.
* Introduce a better urban development strategy with a new 'Urban Development Act' to supplant the RMA within urban boundaries. This would increase the supply of new housing in the marketplace, provide new forms of social housing and set out a 30-year plan to create "healthy, resilient cities". Additionally, this would include the creation of regional urban design panels responsible for reviewing major developments and a further redirection of revenue to local government to maintain public assets and infrastructure, and incentivise councils to enable new housing developments.
* Eliminating fossil-fuel use in New Zealand by 2050.
* Supporting the referendum to legalise cannabis and a "yes" vote in it. Generally, regulate all drugs according to harm.
* Ceasing intensification of land use until impacts on rivers and lakes is offset, and adopting a policy that polluters pay.
* Tightening immigration laws and shifting the focus to attracting highly skilled immigrants, requiring immigrants to demonstrate they can help improve the living standards of all New Zealanders.
* Providing free full-time early-childhood education. Reducing testing in schools so teachers spend less time marking tests and more time teaching.
* Establishing a written constitution and an upper house of parliament.
* Reduce the prison population from 210 per 100,000 to 114 per 100,000 by 2027. To achieve this the party would repeal the Bail Amendment Act of 2013 among other actions.

History

Foundation

The Opportunities Party was founded by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan in November 2016. Morgan launched the party on 4 November outside Parliament House in Wellington. On 10 January 2017 the party announced that it had 2,000 members and was applying for registration. It also announced that it was considering standing electorate candidates. The Electoral Commission posted notice of the registration application on 21 January.

The party announced that then party chief of staff Geoff Simmons would contest the Mount Albert by-election on 25 February 2017. During the by-election the party was criticised by David Seymour for offering free rides for Mount Albert voters, which he asserted breached the Electoral Act. However, the Electoral Commission cleared TOP of any wrongdoing. Simmons received 623 votes (4.56% of the total vote), placing him third.

2017 general election

The party was registered by the Electoral Commission on 6 March 2017. On 24 May 2017, Gareth Morgan announced the party's first four electoral and list candidates for the general election on 23 September 2017, and announced further candidates in the following months including former Green Party candidate Teresa Moore who joined Geoff Simmons as co-deputy leader. TOP's final list had 26 party list candidates of which 21 were also contesting electorates.

TOP took TVNZ to court after being excluded from its televised election debates, but lost the case. Leader Gareth Morgan faced controversy during the campaign for referring to Labour leader Jacinda Ardern as " lipstick on a pig", suggesting that the new leader had style but not substance. Morgan also faced backlash when he criticised the public for being sad over the death of Jacinda Ardern's cat. This backlash included an email from TOP candidate Jenny Condie, who said, "It is not merely Gareth’s comments themselves – these are a reflection of the culture that exists within the party. There is a mismatch between our policies and our culture: between what we say we want to accomplish and how we actually behave." In response, Morgan told Condie to resign from the party.

At the 2017 general election, TOP gained 2.4% of the vote and won no seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives. Morgan vowed to continue fighting for a "fairer New Zealand" and maintained that TOP was not a failure since it was the fifth most popular party.

Post election developments

In December 2017, three months after the election, Gareth Morgan resigned as leader and the party's deputy leader Geoff Simmons and two candidates also stepped down from their roles. Morgan said the party would contest the 2020 election but he would not lead it.

In the week that followed the resignations, candidates Jessica Hammond Doube and Jenny Condie announced the launching of a splinter group from TOP with the placeholder name "Next Big Thing". Both candidates attributed their low list rankings to their having raised questions over Morgan's controversial remarks during the election campaign. Condie would become a councillor for Wellington in 2019, while Jessica Hammond would return to TOP for the 2020 election, after a culture shift within the party during its rebuilding phase.

On 9 July 2018, Morgan announced that the Board of The Opportunities Party had decided to cancel the party's registration since the party lacked the time and resources to contest the 2020 general election. In late July, Morgan and the party's board announced that he would reconsider his decision to cancel the party's registration after receiving expressions of interest from people sympathetic to the party's goals. Morgan also indicated in a Facebook post that he was willing to fund candidates and leaders sympathetic to the goals of The Opportunities Party.

In August 2018, The Opportunities Party appointed a new board and Geoff Simmons was appointed interim leader. The new team embarked on a "Listening Tour" across the country to gauge supporter reaction and future interest.

In December 2018, an internal leadership election was run by digital voting compan
Horizon State
The candidates for leader were Geoff Simmons, Donna Pokere-Phillips, Amy Stevens, Anthony Singh, and Jessica Hammond-Doube. An election was also held for the member-representative to the Board. On 8 December 2018, the board announced that Geoff Simmons had been elected and that Donna Pokere-Phillips had won the race for Member Representative.

2020 general election

After gathering enough support to restart the party and continuing to register with the Electorate Commission, a rebrand and relaunch was held in October 2019. In the brand launch speech, leader Geoff Simmons called for a universal basic income and advances in environment and housing, and to "break the Labour / National duopoly".

TOP nominated candidates in multiple electorates. The Ōhāriu electorate was a particular focus: their Ōhāriu candidate Jessica Hammond Doube said that TOP intended to pour resources into that campaign, as it was the only seat that the party believed it could win. However, she lost the seat to incumbent representative Greg O'Connor by 18,494 votes. Receiving 4,443 votes herself, she came third.

Simmons himself contested Rongotai and came fourth with 3,387 electorate votes out of 45,649 cast. At the beginning of his campaign for the seat Simmons spelled the name of the electorate incorrectly in his advertising as "Rongatai".

The party won 43,449 party votes in the election, or 1.5% of the total. During the party's AGM held on 3 November 2020, the first after the preliminary results had been released, Geoff Simmons resigned as leader and Shai Navot became interim leader.

On 27 January 2022, former Christchurch City Councillor and independent candidate for Ilam, Raf Manji, was announced as the party's third leader.

2022 local elections

The party fielded four candidates in the 2022 local elections, the first time they had contested them. With the final votes tallied, the party had its first elected representative in John Dennison who won a seat on the Featherston Community Board in the South Wairarapa District.

Logo

The party initially used a variant of the Wā kāinga / Home flag as its logo. In a November 2016 blog post, Gareth Morgan noted it had won the Morgan Foundation's flag competition in 2016 and that it symbolised "the transition we currently have underway in Aotearoa". The creators of the Red Peak flag criticised the party for using a logo similar to their flag without discussing it with them. TOP attempted to register this as their logo in January 2017 at the same time as the party; the party was registered in March 2017 but approval of the logo was deferred due to a by-election in March.

The party then changed to a logo consisting of the letters, T, O, and P in black, red, and dark blue respectively. The party applied to register this with the Electoral Commission in April 2017 and it was approved in May 2017. In October 2019, the party updated its website, including a new logo. This logo shows a T, O, P, and full stop; the T and P are in black and the O and full stop are the same colour, though that colour varies from use to use. The logo can appear with a slogan "Vote Different", in a typewriter font. This new logo was registered in February 2020. In the run up to the 2020 New Zealand general election, the party changed the slogan beneath its logo from "Vote Different" to "A Vote For Change".

File:Logo of The Opportunities Party.svg, A variant on Wā kāinga
File:TOP logo 2017.svg, Second logo used for the 2017 election
File:TOP Teal - A vote for change - black on white.png, 2020 election campaign logo

Electoral results

, 63,261
, 2.4%
, - align="center"
! 2020
, 21
, 21
, }
, 43,449
, 1.5%

Officeholders

Leader

Deputy leader

Notable candidates

*Tuariki Delamere (born 1951), former Minister of Immigration, Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Associate Minister of Finance, and Associate Minister of Health. Delamere has been a candidate from 2020 to the present.
*Abe Gray (born 1982), founder of the Whakamana Cannabis Museum, high-profile cannabis activist and protester for almost two decades. Gray has been a candidate from 2017 to the present.
*Mika Haka (born 1962), Māori singer, performance artist, actor, filmmaker, TV producer and comedian. Haka was a candidate for the 2017 election campaign.
* Jessica Hammond (born 1978/1979), public servant, politician, playwright, and blogger. Hammond has been a candidate from 2017 to the present.

References

External links

*

{{Cannabis in New Zealand

Centrist parties in New Zealand
Political parties in New Zealand
Political parties established in 2016
2016 establishments in New Zealand
Universal basic income