On Newshub Nation: Lisa Owen interviews The Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons

• TOP leader Geoff Simmons says the party will be a "much more democratic institution" now
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• He says the party will no longer be a "one man band"
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• Gareth Morgan will not be the only source of funding for the party: "We are going to be looking for a much broader funding base, so that we can draw on a lot of different perspectives"
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• Geoff Simmons says the party will stick with the policies it formulated ahead of the last election: "We've got a couple of years to really get out and explain to people why our policies are going to make a difference."
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Lisa Owen: The Opportunities Party, or TOP, had the potential to really sway last year’s election, but failed to get enough votes to get into parliament, ending up with just over 2% of the vote. In July, the party’s former leader, Gareth Morgan, announced the party was to be deregistered, but now his former deputy, economist Geoff Simmons, is giving it another shot. He joins me now. Kia ora, good morning.

Geoff Simmons: Ata marie, Lisa.

When you quit the party last December, you said you’d return if the circumstances were right. So was Gareth Morgan stepping down what you were waiting for?

Well, I think, the real issue was that the people— the membership really made it clear that they really wanted The Opportunities Party to continue. And they stepped up and were prepared to pitch in and keep the party going. So I think that was the crucial thing — really getting an indication that people wanted the party to continue.

So are you saying that Gareth Morgan being out of the picture had nothing to do with your decision to come back?

Well, Gareth always intended to step down after the election as leader. I think the question was how the party would move forward, you know, in the future, in terms of structure.

So how is— what’s different about this party, then, other than having you in charge?

Well, we still— Gareth’s still involved; he’s on our policy committee, so we still get to use his big brain, but he’s not involved in the political side whatsoever. So, you know, my plan is to work a lot more with the members and get a sense of where they want to see the party going and make it a much more democratic institution.

Was it not a democratic institution before?

Well, you know, it was set up by Gareth and fully funded by Gareth, so, obviously, he had a lot of input into how the party ran. So we are going to be looking for a much broader funding base so that we can draw on a lot of different perspectives.

Is that a polite way of saying that he had too much influence?

Well, I mean, I think that’s up to people to decide for themselves.

I’m asking you.

Well, I mean, I think Gareth did a great job in terms of setting up the party, but in terms of a sustainable party going forward, it could never be a one-man band.

Okay. Well, you say he’s still on the policy committee, and he is also still going to fund the party — he kicked in $2 million last time. But he has said, publicly, that that funding is tied to you implementing his policies. And if you don’t do that, you will ‘be personally liable to him’. What does that mean?

Well, I think, actually, you know, everyone that’s involved in The Opportunities Party is involved because they like the policies, so I think that’s really a non-issue. We all want long-term—

Is it though? Because he said it. And any form of government will be a coalition, so, you know, there’s always compromise in that. And he’s saying if you don’t implement the policies, you’re going to be ‘personally liable’. What’s he going to do? Make you pay it back at a dollar a week?

Gareth realises that compromises happen in the Beehive, and he totally understands that that will happen when you actually get there and get in the coalition-forming process. But what he wants to see is a party that’s standing for what works in the long-term. And The Opportunities Party is going to stay exactly that.

So is he just being bombastic when he says that — it means nothing?

Do you think it’s unusual for Gareth to be bombastic, Lisa?

So does it mean nothing?

Well, I mean—

There’s no responsibility to deliver anything in exchange for the money?

His concern was that if he handed The Opportunities Party over that politicians would get— career politicians would get involved and the policies would be shifted to be more palatable to the public. But that— We are going to be sticking with the policies that we formulated at the last election.

You are going to stick with all of those policies?

Well, I mean, some of them will need updating, of course, to stay relevant, but the absolute general thrust will stay exactly the same — what works in the long-term.

But you just said there that there was concern that the policies might be changed to be more palatable to the public. Well, they have to palatable to a certain extent, don’t they? Or you don’t get enough votes.

Well, I mean, I think we showed in the last election that, you know, in 10 months, we managed to get 2.5%, Lisa.

2.4, I think.

Yeah, that’s right. And now we have another two years to really get across our ideas to people. And that’s really what it takes. When you’re trying to do what works, these ideas are naturally more complicated than, you know, populist policies. So now we’ve actually got time — we’ve got a couple of years to really get out and explain to people why our policies are going to make a difference to the issues that New Zealanders see — our struggling economy, rising inequality, the housing crisis and our environment.

Our economy is not struggling.

Yes, it is. I’m an economist. Our economy has been— is below the OECD average in terms of income and has been that way for many decades. We had a so-called ‘rock-star economy’ under National, but in the last few years that was propped up by immigration. And that did not raise the average incomes of New Zealanders at all.

Okay, we’re almost out of time, but I want to ask you about a couple of policies. Capital gains tax — well, that basically lost Labour a couple of elections, didn’t it? Your tax policy is like capital gains on steroids. How do you think you’re going to be elected on that basis?

Well, at the moment, income tax payers pay too much tax in New Zealand. And if we got all assets to pay their fair share of tax, then actually we could cut income tax by a third. That’s what we need to get across to New Zealanders — that income tax payers are getting a raw deal at the moment. And if we make assets pay their fair share, we can give quite a massive tax cut to the average Kiwi, more money in their back pocket, so that 80% of people will be better off.

All right. Thanks for joining us this morning, Geoff Simmons, the new leader of the TOP party.

Kia ora, Lisa.

Transcript provided by Able. www.able.co.nz

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