The newly elected leader of the Opportunities Party, Geoff Simmons, says the country's cats will be safe if TOP makes it into parliament.
Party founder Gareth Morgan is well-known for his frequent forays into feline feuds, particularly on Twitter.
"I grew up with cats and I certainly want every cat to be safe in someone's lap," says Mr Simmons.
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"Of course, as a country we do have a lot of issues with flightless birds and predators such as feral cats, without an owner, and rats, mustelids and stoats - they're all going to need to be dealt with if we're going to see our bird population thrive."
Mr Simmons says Mr Morgan is not currently funding the party, but will still have input into policy creation.
"He's helping us on the policy committee, but our job in the party now is to sell those best practice policies."
Mr Simmons disputes that TOP has drifted too far to the left to capture centre right voters.
"I've spent a lot of time talking to businesses about how we want to drive investment in New Zealand into business rather than into housing speculation."
He says TOP could go with Labour or National, depending on who gave them the most policy concessions. However, housing, taxation and the environment will be priorities.
TOP received 2.4 percent of the vote at the 2017 election but did not enter parliament due to the 5 percent threshold.
Newshub Nation.
