Mike's Minute: Has the Opportunity Party blown it?

The Opportunity Party turns out to be a sham of sorts.

We have bottom lines, but not real bottom lines.

1) More power to the Commerce Commission. Big deal...

2) A 10-year health plan. That means nothing.

Ani O'Brien: Could Opportunity really work with the Right?

Ask whether The Opportunity Party are left or right and they tell you they are neither. They are “centrist”, they say, and they are teal. The three pillars that underpin their ethos are “Unity, Innovation, and Nature” and they describe themselves as a “blue-green party”. They believe that industry and nature can grow together, rail against “divisive, pendulum politics”, and promise to be a constructive MMP kingmaker rather than just another tribal appendage of either bloc.

David Harvey: Opportunist Levelling

The Methods Change With Time

The Levellers were a radical political movement active in England during the mid-1640s to 1649, emerging from the Parliamentarian side of the Civil War. They were most influential among London artisans, tradesmen, and rank-and-file soldiers of the New Model Army.

JC: Opt for TOP

This should have been the front page headline in the Herald. They were keen to let their readers know they were on TOP of things last weekend, at least when they came to the Opportunity Party. I picked up the paper and there staring me in the face was another face, that of the by now all too familiar Qiulae Wong. At the bottom of the A1 half-page spread readers were invited to go to A10 to continue the fascinating read. They didn’t mention the furthering of the epic on A11. Suspect bias is one thing but blatant bias is quite another. This was completely ‘over the top’.

Bob Edlin: TOP is guided by developmental science on youthful criminality....

....but how is young adult voting behaviour affected?

Chris Lynch’s Christchurch Newsroom earlier this month reported that the Opportunity Party has scrubbed the age of 25 from a policy proposing a major expansion of New Zealand’s youth justice system.

David Farrar: TOP says do what I say, not what I do

The Opportunistic Party has said their policy is to restrict donations to a political party over an electoral cycle to $30,000.

So far this years they have banked the following donations:

Ashley Church: Could TOPs “free money” policy really work?

And is it really 'evidence based'?

In 2004, John Key described Labour’s newly announced Working for Families programme as “communism by stealth.”

For younger readers, Working for Families was a major expansion of financial assistance to families introduced by Helen Clark’s Labour Government in the 2004 Budget. It increased family income assistance, added a new payment for working parents and expanded help with childcare and housing. By the time it was fully implemented, Labour expected the package to cost an additional $1.1 billion every year, with nearly 300,000 households receiving direct assistance.

JD: On the Qiulae Wong Interview

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Having watched Qiulae Wong, the Opportunity Party leader, being interviewed by Jack Tame, it is clear that she, and presumably those who advise her, have no idea when it comes to the two key planks of their manifesto. What will be the effect of their increased tax and land tax impositions and the Universal Basic Income, with all of the costs thereto attached?

Troy Bowker: The Opportunity Party - A Radical Left Policy Manifesto

The audacity of the party to describe itself as centrist and moderate is, in some ways, impressive. That positioning, however, relies heavily on what appears to be a willing mainstream media environment that has devoted significant attention to TOP’s political story and leadership while providing comparatively limited scrutiny of the consequences of its actual policy platform.

Why has so much focus been placed on TOP’s rise, its leader and its political narrative, while there has been limited examination of the practical impacts of its proposed reforms?

Mike's Minute: Of course Luxon ruled out the Opportunity Party

The funny thing about Christopher Luxon ruling out the Opportunity Party was I already thought he had.

Or if they hadn't, I assumed they would, so yesterday as I watched came as no surprise.

What possible connection is there between a centre-right coalition that extends out to the NZ First nationalism, to the ACT libertarianism, and the National low tax, classic centrist view of the world, and a party that hasn’t even got the 5% and wants to hand out money to everyone, whether they need it or want it or not?

JD: An Analysis of TOP’s Taxes

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Amid the current MSM hoopla about TOP, momentarily muted as the press pack rushes off to dig up dirt on Paul Henry and Stuart Nash, there is one key TOP policy winning voter attention that is seldom mentioned.

What’s driving TOP in the polls has nothing to do with them being ‘centrists’, offering a ‘measured alternative’ to Labour or National and claiming to be willing to work with either of them, it is simply that TOP are offering free money, and who can resist that?

David Farrar: Luxon rules out TOP

The Post reports:

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has ruled out working with Opportunity after the election.

Opportunity has polled within a percentage point of the 5% threshold in three different public polls in recent weeks. If the party made it into Parliament on current polling its support would be needed for either the coalition or the Opposition parties to govern.

Dr Oliver Hartwich: Everyone is a winner with TOP

The Opportunity Party wants to be known as the party of ideas. Now polling near five percent, I decided to test one.

The party’s website offers a calculator. You enter your income and land value, and it reveals how much better off you will be under its radical tax proposal. Their so-called ‘Tax Reset’ promises a cash payment of $19,400 a year to every adult, the ‘Citizen’s Income’, funded by a 1.75 percent annual tax on land.

I tried to invent someone who would pay more net tax under the scheme. I failed.

JD: Let Us First Establish the Basic Facts

Guest post on The Good Oil by JD

Time to stop fawning over TOP as the bright young things of New Zealand politics and take a look at how much of a threat they pose to the peace of mind, financial wellbeing and, by extension, the health of every Kiwi pensioner.

TOP makes several claims including:

Ashley Church: TOP is a Trojan horse for the left

Why a vote for The Opportunities Party is simply a vote for the Greens and Labour

The idea of a genuinely centrist political party that draws intelligently from both the left and the right is attractive.

Such a party could combine environmental responsibility with economic realism. It could appeal to younger voters concerned about housing, climate, infrastructure and the future without requiring them to buy into the full ideological programme of Labour or the Greens.

Lindsay Mitchell: TOP's Citizen's Income policy

Let's look at the costings first.