The Opportunities Party
The Opportunities Party is a centrist political party based in New Zealand. It was founded in 2016 by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan. The party is based upon an idea of "evidence-based" policy with 17 policies made up of four selected pillars of "Environment Front and Centre", "The Cost of Housing Must Come Down", "Universal Basic Income " and "The Opportunity to Thrive".
During the 2017 general election, TOP gained 2.4% of the vote and won no seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives.
The party has been led by Geoff Simmons since late 2018. He has announced that the party intends to contest the 2020 general election, running several candidates across the country, with the party utilising similar but 'updated' "evidence-based policy".
Policies and principles
TOP lists its policies on the party website. In summary, these include:- Deem a minimum rate of return for all assets and charge a tax on it. At the same time, reduce income tax rates so that the total tax take remains unchanged. The changes will be done gradually to ensure house prices remain stable while incomes grow. The party considers the existing tax regime to favour owners of capital and to over-tax wage earners, to favour home-owners and to disadvantage those who rent their home, and to encourage investment in real estate rather than productive businesses.
- Introduce a better urban development strategy with a new 'Urban Development Act' to replace the RMA. 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.
- Eliminating fossil-fuel use in New Zealand by 2050.
- Implementing a 'universal basic income' of $200 per week for all young adults 18-23, families with children under 3 and for all over 65s. This would be funded by means-testing current superannuation.
- Legalising cannabis for purchase and use at age 20. Ensuring sales through Cannabis Licensing Trusts and taxes from sales will go into education on the risks of cannabis harm. The policy aims at minimising total harm and advocates decriminalisation and legalisation.
- Ceasing intensification of land use until impacts on rivers and lakes is offset. Adopting a policy that polluters pay.
- Tightening immigration laws and shifting the focus to attracting highly skilled migrants. Criteria for immigrants will involve demonstrating they can help improve the living standards of all New Zealanders. Limiting net immigration to 1% population growth per annum, and making access to permanent residency harder and longer.
- 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 by 40%. To achieve this, among other strategies, the Party would repeal the Bail Amendment Act of 2013 which has led to a dramatic increase in the number of people being held in prison on remand.
History
Foundation
The Opportunities Party was founded by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan in November 2016. Gareth 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. At the final count, Simmons received 623 votes, with 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. They were Geoff Simmons who would be the deputy leader of the party and would be standing in Wellington Central, Lesley Immink standing in East Coast, Jessica Hammond Doube standing in Ōhāriu and Jenny Condie as a list candidate and TOP's tax spokesperson. TOP announced three more candidates on 1 June 2017 – Nicky Snoyink standing in Selwyn, Olly Wilson standing in Rangitata, and Kevin Neill standing in Waitaki. In mid-June 2017, it was announced that artist Mika Haka would stand in Auckland Central. On 28 August 2017, it was announced that former Green Party candidate Teresa Moore would join Geoff Simmons as co-deputy leader. In total, the party ran 21 electoral candidates and 26 party list candidates.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.
During the 2017 general election, TOP gained 2.4% of the vote and won no seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives. Party leader Gareth 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 based on the provisional results.
Post election developments
In December 2017, three months after the election, 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.
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 blockchain election company 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 were 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 has announced that it intends to have candidates contest electorates across the country, such as North Shore, Te Atatū, Epsom, Mt Albert, Central Auckland, Hamilton, Ilam, Nelson, Dunedin and Ōhāriu. The Ōhāriu electorate is a particular focus: TOP's Ōhāriu candidate Jessica Hammond said that TOP intend to pour resources into that campaign, as it is the only seat that the party could win. Simmons himself will contest Rongotai.
The party received a broadcasting allocation of $145,101 for the 2020 election.
Logo
The party has used three different logos since its creation.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. The party 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 the logo was not.
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.