Geoff Simmons | |
---|---|
2nd Leader of The Opportunities Party | |
In office August 2018 – 3 November 2020 | |
Preceded by | Gareth Morgan |
Succeeded by | Shai Navot |
1st Deputy Leader of The Opportunities Party | |
In office 24 May 2017 – 14 December 2017 | |
Leader | Gareth Morgan |
Succeeded by | Teresa Moore |
Personal details | |
Born | New Zealand | 27 December 1974
Political party | TOP |
Alma mater | University of Auckland |
Geoffrey Leonard Simmons (born 27 December 1974) is an economist and former leader of The Opportunities Party (TOP), a political party in New Zealand. He stood for TOP in the February 2017 Mount Albert by-election, in the Wellington Central electorate in the 2017 general election, and in the Rongotai electorate in the 2020 general election.
Simmons grew up in Ōkaihau (Far North) and West Auckland, [1] the son of two teachers. [2] He graduated in economics from the University of Auckland. [3] He worked as an economic analyst for the New Zealand Treasury from 1999 to 2003. [4] [3] [1] He worked as an economic advisor for the UK Home Office in 2003–05 and then for the East Midlands Development Agency in 2005–08. [4] He was the general manager and an economist for the Morgan Foundation [2] (founded by Gareth Morgan) in Wellington from 2009 to 2016. [3] [4] [1] He has co-authored four books with Morgan, on health (Health Cheque: The Truth We Should All Know about New Zealand's Public Health System), fishing (Hook, Line and Blinkers: Everything Kiwis Never Wanted to Know about Fishing), Antarctica (Ice, Mice and Men: the Issues Facing our Far South) and food (Appetite for Destruction: Food – the Good, the Bad and the Fatal). [5] He is a Lancet Commission on Obesity Fellow. [6]
Simmons has done acting, including improvisational theatre, since he was at secondary school. He has performed with the Improv Bandits, a professional troupe in Auckland, Best on Tap in Wellington, and Stagecraft at the Gryphon Theatre in Wellington. He teaches with the Wellington Improv Troupe. [3]
In the February 2017 Mount Albert by-election, Simmons stood as a candidate for the Opportunities Party (TOP), founded by Gareth Morgan. [2] [7] He came third, with 623 votes, 4.56% of 13,649 valid votes. [8]
On 24 May 2017, Gareth Morgan announced that Simmons as the deputy leader of TOP and their candidate in the Wellington Central electorate in the 2017 New Zealand general election. [9] [2] During the 2017 election for Wellington Central held on 23 September, Simmons came fourth place with 2,892 votes. [10]
In December 2017, three months after the election, Morgan resigned as leader and Simmons and two candidates also stepped down from their roles. [11] In August 2018, TOP appointed Simmons as interim leader until an election of party members could be held to determine a replacement to Morgan. In the ensuing internal leadership election, Simmons contested the position with four other candidates. On 8 December 2018, the party board announced Simmons had been successful. [12]
During the TOP's party relaunch held in October 2019, Simmons delivered a speech advocating a universal basic income and "breaking the Labour / National duopoly". [13]
In July 2020, Simmons announced that he would contest the Rongotai electorate during the 2020 New Zealand general election. [14] At the beginning of his campaign for the seat Simmons spelled the name of the electorate incorrectly in his advertising as "Rongatai". [15]
During the 2020 election held on 17 October, Simmons came fourth place in Rongotai with 2,794 votes. [16] Based on full results published on 6 November, the TOP party won 43,449 party votes (1.5% of the popular vote). [17] Following the election results, Simmons and deputy leader Shai Navot emailed members, supporters, and donors, thanking them for their support. [18]
During the party's first annual general meeting held on 3 November, Simmons resigned as leader of TOP. [19]
The following table shows the final results: [20]
2017 Mount Albert by-election | |||||
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Notes: Blue background denotes the winner of the by-election. | |||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Jacinda Ardern | 10,495 | 76.89 | ||
Green | Julie Anne Genter | 1,564 | 11.45 | ||
Opportunities | Geoff Simmons | 623 | 4.56 | ||
People's Party | Vin Tomar | 218 | 1.59 | ||
Socialist Aotearoa | Joe Carolan | 189 | 1.38 | ||
Independent | Penny Bright | 139 | 1.01 | ||
Legalise Cannabis | Abe Gray | 97 | 0.71 | ||
Independent | Adam Amos | 81 | 0.59 | ||
Independent | Dale Arthur | 54 | 0.39 | ||
Human Rights Party | Anthony Van den Heuvel | 34 | 0.24 | ||
Independent | Peter Wakeman | 30 | 0.21 | ||
Not A Party | Simon Smythe | 19 | 0.13 | ||
Communist League | Patrick Brown | 16 | 0.11 | ||
Informal votes | 90 | 0.65 | |||
Total Valid votes | 13,649 | 30.00 | |||
Labour hold | Majority | 8,931 | 65.43 |
2017 general election: Wellington Central [21] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: |
Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
| ||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | ![]() |
20,873 | 49.26 | −2.38 | 16,500 | 38.29 | +14.51 | ||
National | Nicola Willis | 10,910 | 25.75 | −4.34 | 13,156 | 30.53 | −7.01 | ||
Green | James Shaw | 6,520 | 15.39 | +2.15 | 9,198 | 21.34 | −8.16 | ||
Opportunities | Geoff Simmons | 2,892 | 6.82 | — | 2,538 | 5.89 | — | ||
NZ First | Andy Foster | 797 | 1.88 | +0.37 | 972 | 2.26 | −1.32 | ||
Independent | Gayaal Iddamalgoda | 161 | 0.38 | — | |||||
ACT | Michael Warren | 131 | 0.31 | — | 330 | 0.77 | +0.07 | ||
Independent | Peter Robinson | 71 | 0.17 | −0.11 | |||||
Independent | Bob Wessex | 19 | 0.04 | — | |||||
Māori Party | 225 | 0.52 | −0.25 | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 55 | 0.13 | −0.19 | ||||||
Conservative | 29 | 0.07 | −1.44 | ||||||
United Future New Zealand | 28 | 0.06 | −0.24 | ||||||
Mana | 14 | 0.03 | −1.45 [a] | ||||||
Ban 1080 | 13 | 0.03 | −0.02 | ||||||
Outdoors | 11 | 0.03 | — | ||||||
People's Party | 10 | 0.03 | — | ||||||
Internet | 9 | 0.02 | −1.46 [b] | ||||||
Democrats | 6 | 0.01 | −0.06 | ||||||
Informal votes | 194 | 72 | |||||||
Total valid votes | 42,374 | 43,094 | |||||||
Turnout | 43,166 | 86.56 [22] | +2.42 | ||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 9,963 | 23.51 | +1.95 |
2020 general election: Rongotai [23] | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Notes: |
Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote.
| ||||||||
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Party votes | % | ±% | ||
Labour | ![]() |
25,926 | 57.11 | +5.39 | 23,878 | 52.31 | +8.05 | ||
Green | Teall Crossen | 6,719 | 14.80 | -0.15 | 10,765 | 23.58 | +5.82 | ||
National | David Patterson | 6,447 | 14.20 | −10.86 | 6,013 | 13.17 | −14.84 | ||
Opportunities | Geoff Simmons | 3,387 | 7.46 | +3.37 | 1,272 | 2.79 | -1.83 | ||
ACT | Nicole McKee | 965 | 2.13 | +1.86 | 1,795 | 3.93 | +3.59 | ||
NZ First | Taylor Arneil | 472 | 1.04 | -1.04 | 883 | 1.93 | -1.71 | ||
New Conservative | Bruce Welsh | 431 | 0.95 | +0.40 | 232 | 0.51 | -0.37 | ||
Integrity | Troy Mihaka | 162 | 0.36 | — | |||||
Independent | Don Newt McDonald | 110 | 0.24 | — | |||||
Māori Party | 201 | 0.44 | -0.06 | ||||||
Advance NZ | 184 | 0.40 | — | ||||||
Legalise Cannabis | 70 | 0.15 | -0.01 | ||||||
ONE | 45 | 0.1 | — | ||||||
Sustainable NZ | 27 | 0.06 | — | ||||||
Outdoors | 21 | 0.04 | +0.01 | ||||||
Vision NZ | 21 | 0.04 | — | ||||||
Social Credit | 10 | 0.02 | +0.01 | ||||||
TEA | 7 | 0.015 | — | ||||||
Heartland | 7 | 0.015 | — | ||||||
Informal votes | 779 | 259 | |||||||
Total valid votes | 45,398 | 45,649 | |||||||
Turnout | 45,649 | ? | ? | ||||||
Labour hold | Majority | 19,207 | 42.31 | +15.65 |
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Geoff Simmons | 678 | 65.57 | |
Amy Stevens | 206 | 19.92 | |
Jessica Hammond-Doube | 137 | 13.25 | |
Donna Pokere-Phillips | 11 | 1.06 | |
Anthony Singh | 2 | 0.19 | |
Majority | 472 | 45.64 | |
Turnout | 1,034 | — |