Disclaimer the Author is a Member of the NZ Labour Party.
On November 7th New Zealand will head to the polls for its general election. While its Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system is nominally being more friendly to minor parties, the 5% threshold for entering parliament means that it is difficult for new parties to reach Wellington, which is why The Opportunity Party (TOP) looking to enter parliament as kingmaker is quite shocking. So, in light of this, who are TOP and what do they stand for?
Do you, dear reader, like fedoras? Do you know the Jolly Rancher story? Do you still feel angry about the banning of r/Jailbait? Then you are I suspect a redditor, and TOPs target demographic. Founded in 2017 by the economist Gareth Morgan as The Opportunities Party, TOP promotes evidence-based policy and occupying the political centre. They have contested every election since foundation, although failing to reach parliament despite a dispassionate amount of support online by people who argue the NZ Labour party are too centrist, yet the NZ Greens are too radical. Despite this, TOP has said it plans to work with National and ACT New Zealand.
TOP’s main policies this election are a Citizens Income and the introduction of a Land Value Tax. Citizen’s income, effectively a form of Universal Basic Income would guarantee $370NZD a week for all New Zealanders older than 18 and earning bellow $350,000NZD a year, and replace all forms of Government assistance including Superannuation (NZ’s sovereign wealth fund/state pension) which is currently $550NZD a week, it is also the same amount as people currently on the benefit receive. While this proposal would cut the benefits bill it would do so by effectively removing any additional benefits people receive such as disability, sickness, or single parent benefits, additionally the total yearly cost of this would be about 20% of NZ’s GDP a rise from 9% for all welfare and social security at present.
Their proposal to pay for this is the introduction of a land value tax or 1.75% a year for urban land or 0.5% for rural. TOP claims this would cover the cost of their Citizens Income and still leave $4 billion NZD a year in additional revenue. Alongside this they plan to raise income tax across the board which would hit kiwis with lower incomes hardest. TOP claims a land value tax will reduce housing prices by forcing people to sell their houses when they can’t afford the tax. They have not made clear how a collapse in land value will affect funding for their Citizens Income, additionally given the NZ Labour party have come under attack for being un-kiwi with their proposal to introduce a Capital Gains Tax on second homes, it is hard to see TOP getting support from other parties for effectively taxing people’s family homes.
TOP has been compared to a modern reincarnation of the Social Credit party pre-MMP, presenting a protest option for people who are uncontent with how the country is run and want something outside of the scope of the regular political debate to vote for. Much like Social Credit they do better when their ideas aren’t put under scrutiny.
Edited by Ross Munro