The Opportunities Party (TOP) is back - and it has a new leader.
Deputy Geoff Simmons will step into the top spot left vacant by Gareth Morgan.
- Gareth Morgan ends the 'farce' of trying to get into Parliament
- Gareth Morgan fires 'pain in the arse' candidate
Mr Simmons says loyal supporters made it impossible to disband.
"They felt TOP hadn't quite reached its potential. Ten months before the election wasn't a lot of time to really explain a lot of our messages and reach as many people as we could, so they feel it's worth another crack."
Dr Morgan was going to deregister the party last month, but changed his mind.
The new TOP board will comprise of Mr Simmons and two other 2017 TOP candidates - Olly Wilson and Paddy Plunket. Dr Morgan will be chair of the party's policy committee.
"Policy has always been my main interest," says Dr Morgan.
"TOP will continue to be unique - presenting to Parliament coherent, evidence-informed policy developed by experts. That is a major differentiation between TOP and the establishment parties. The place for the horse-trading and compromise which too often renders policy inadequate, is Parliament in full view of the voting public, not in the back rooms of political parties."
- Gareth Morgan posts end-of-year message holding a cat
- Gareth Morgan calls Jacinda Ardern 'lipstick on a pig'
The party's main priority for now will be raising enough money to properly contest the 2020 election. The 2017 bid was largely funded out of Dr Morgan's own back pocket. He spent $2.3 million, and won 63,260 party votes - that's about $37 per vote - which was slightly under half what they needed to get into Parliament.
"We really want to activate those members," says Mr Simmons. "There are a lot of people out there that support TOP, and we want to get them involved and get them helping with our campaign - maximising the people power, if you like."
TOP's 2017 campaign was derailed by a number of controversial statements from Dr Morgan, including calling Labour leader Jacinda Ardern "lipstick on a pig" and lashing out at "femo-fascists".
He went on to call New Zealanders selfish for not voting for the party.
Newshub.
