The Opportunities Party (TOP) today proudly announced the first tranche of candidates that will contest the upcoming 2020 New Zealand General Election.

After two successive “smile and wave” governments Kiwis can see through the charade. Politics has deteriorated into a popularity contest between career politicians. Their skills are in courting donors in order to keep their perks, rather than tackling the issues we face as a nation. They are not willing, nor able, to push for fundamental change.

TOP Leader, Geoff Simmons, said he “was proud to be able to announce the fantastic field of candidates to represent us at the upcoming election. These people are not politicians. They are a mix of experienced experts and energised young people whose generation will face the brunt of society’s challenges. They show that TOP is ready to be in government, and push for fundamental change.

After years of inaction from both major parties it is only right that we confront the major issues affecting all Kiwis – let’s put the environment front and centre; let’s truly tackle the housing crisis; and let’s fix the tax and benefit system. This is what our candidates are about; representing the change that New Zealanders want to see.”

The TOP candidates being announced today are:

• Waitemata Local Board member Adriana Christie (Auckland)
• Business Owner & entrepreneur Joshua Love (Auckland)
• Quantity Surveyor Cameron Lord (Auckland)
• Former Crown Prosecutor Shai Navot (Auckland)
• Architect & Housing Spokesperson Brendon Monk (Auckland)
• Education Spokesperson Dr Naomi Pocock (Hamilton)
• Senior Policy Advisor Jessica Hammond (Wellington)
• Tech entrepreneur Mathew Pottinger (Nelson)
• Policy wunderkind Doug Hill (Christchurch)
• Innovation & Gene Editing Spokesperson Dr Ben Peters (Dunedin)

TOP will be announcing its Deputy Leader and which electorates it is targeting in coming months.

To learn more about each candidate and their individual campaigns, please visit www.TOP.org.nz/candidates.

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