Duncan Garner: TOP's centrist label is a lie voters must see through

The Opportunities Party has hit 6.5% in the latest Roy Morgan poll. Labour has collapsed to 25.5%, its lowest point in years. And somehow, the media has decided this is not worth interrogating.

If this were National tanking, caucus votes would already be organised. But Labour gets a pass, and TOP gets treated like some refreshing centrist alternative. That narrative needs to end. Because TOP is not centrist. It is Labour with better branding. It is the Greens without the anger. And calling it anything else is deception.

I have been sent a 23-page dossier on TOP by a political researcher who prefers to remain anonymous. It backgrounds every candidate. It analyses every policy. The findings are clear: this party sits firmly on the left. It can only work with Labour and the Greens. Anyone selling you the idea that TOP is some pragmatic middle ground is lying to you.

The leadership tells you everything

Start with the leader. Ky Wong was not a grassroots campaigner. She was not a long-serving party member. She had never held elected office. She came from climate advocacy and sustainability consulting. Her appointment was not the result of thousands of members voting. It was a board process after a party that had failed three times to make Parliament decided it needed a complete overhaul.

And who helped run that overhaul? Iain Lees-Galloway. Former Labour Cabinet minister. The man Jacinda Ardern sacked in 2020 for having an affair with a staff member. That tells you something about the personalities shaping this party.

Wong immediately signalled her politics in early interviews. She praised the Greens. She praised James Shaw. That was more than a hint. That was a declaration.

The policies are the giveaway

Forget the branding. Look at the platform. TOP wants to give every adult nearly $20,000 a year through a citizen's income. Everyone becomes a beneficiary. To pay for it, there is a permanent land tax. Not temporary. Permanent. An annual tax on urban land.

The party openly argues that house prices should fall by 10 to 15%. Think about that. Most political parties spend their lives promising to protect the value of your biggest asset. TOP's objective is to lower it. Retirees who cannot afford the tax? The bill accumulates until you die, and your estate pays for it. That is a death tax.

Then there is compulsory KiwiSaver. Workers pay more. Employers pay more. The government creates an enormous national investment pool. That is not small government liberalism. That is the state deliberately reshaping how New Zealand saves and invests.

Housing will involve government financing and underwriting. Free public transport. Repeal the Treaty Principles Bill. Expand treaty-based decision-making. Greater devolution of health and justice services into the community. Decriminalise drug possession. Lift youth court jurisdiction to age 25. More regulation in the environment. Agriculture brought further into the ETS. More marine reserves. No seabed mining. Restrictions on bottom trawling. More government investment directing the economy towards preferred outcomes.

This is not neutral ideology. This is the modern Labour-Greens policy universe, presented more politely.

Citizens assemblies sound harmless until they are not

Perhaps the most revealing proposal is the citizens assemblies. Random citizens hear from experts before making recommendations that Parliament must consider. Sounds democratic. But who chooses the experts? Who writes the briefing papers? Who frames the questions? Who decides which organisations get a seat at the table?

Those decisions matter as much as the citizens sitting in the room. Institutions shape outcomes. They always have. People who choose the experts will choose like-minded people. None of this makes TOP extremist. But it certainly does not make it centrist.

This is Labour's future, not the centre

TOP is politically fascinating because it is not trying to outflank Labour from the left. It is trying to become Labour's future. It is a cleaner brand. A smarter presentation. A party full of consultants, policy professionals, and sustainability executives rather than career politicians. Labour carries decades of baggage. The Greens carry decades of activism and envy. TOP is new and fresh. It packages progressive politics in a non-threatening way, fronted by a non-threatening leader.

It is clever politics. Very clever. But let's call it what it is. TOP is not the centre. It is the new professional left. And to continue calling it centrist is to take part in deceiving the New Zealand public.

At 6.5% in the polls, this matters. Voters deserve to know what they are actually voting for. Not the spin. Not the branding. The reality. And the reality is that TOP's policies align completely with Labour and the Greens. Every single one of them.

Do your homework. Buyer beware.