14 August 2017
Shayne Currie
NZME

Dear Shayne,
I write in response to an online “editorial” posted by one of your staff on Monday August 14th.

In what is called “Mike’s Minute” presenter Mike Hosking held forth on his opinions of The Opportunities Party and myself.

Let us first deal with the factual inaccuracies in Mr Hosking’s rant.

He maintained that winning an electorate gets you heaps more seats than just standing on the list.
This is patently wrong. Were Mr Hosking to have done his homework he would know that winning an electorate seat might result in getting a list MP in on the coattails of an electorate member but obviously winning five percent plus of the party vote gets six MPs for a party. ACT and United Future are evidence of the shallowness of Mr Hosking’s claim.

He suggested TOP is not contesting electorates. This, again, is false. We are fielding 20 plus candidates for the 2017 General election the majority are standing in electorates, some of which were announced months ago.
Mr Hosking also claimed TOP is just me; refer to the paragraph above. He may have heard of some of our candidates, Mika Haka in Auckland Central, Deputy Leader Geoff Simmons in Wellington Central, Theresa Moore in East Coast Bays and list candidate Buddy Mikaere to name just a few.

There was also some musing as to where TOP’s support might come from. While I appreciate Mr Hosking’s limited grasp of modern politics, the most rudimentary study of our campaign material would tell him that we seek support from all New Zealand voters who care and think. This clearly puts Mr Hosking outside our target market, but his adherence to outdated ideas in a modern MMP environment is still deplorable in a presenter who purports to have some insight into political matters.

I guess all those inaccuracies might be forgivable in a presenter providing a glib, populist assessment of me and TOP, but equally concerning is Mr Hosking’s inability to understand even the most basic principles of economics and taxation.

He challenges anyone to understand our Fair Tax Policy, presumably because he doesn’t. Rather than have tens of thousands of TOP supporters write to explain the policy to Mr Hosking, I am happy to offer him some basic tutelage in taxation and economics. As part of that I would also be happy to explain our Homes Not Houses tenancy reform to him, as he clearly hasn’t read them.

Mr Hosking also made some reference to his belief that I am constantly depressed. I am not sure what exposure or experience Mr Hosking has in the area of psychiatry or treatment of depression, but I can assure him I am in fine fettle, and indeed had a good chuckle watching his commentary on The Opportunities Party.

Given all of the above, I’m willing to join him live to explain our tax and tenancy policies and to help him understand a little more about the issues that matter to New Zealanders.
I look forward to your prompt response to this letter.
Kind regards

Gareth Morgan
Founder/Leader
The Opportunities Party

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