Following his party's policy announcement this week, I asked Gareth Morgan how the last few days had impacted on his plans around releasing his first policy on tax reform.

He'd just arrived back from Borneo, John Key had resigned and the political map had shifted. I didn't think he really cared who was in Government.

'For me, it makes no difference at all,” says Gareth.

'I'm interested in taking policy to the people and getting them to say yeah or nay. I don't really care who the other politicians are. I'll work with anybody. It's the arguments around the policies that are important to me, nothing else.”

Gareth had launched his The Opportunities Party with a determination to fix a system that he thinks is unfair to the average wage earner who he believes is paying too much tax.

'What I'm trying to do is reverse this big increase in inequality that started with Ruth Richardson back in 1990,” says Gareth, 'pulling the carpet from underneath low incomes. That opened up a bigger gap than there was. We've always promised that that would come right through trickle down. But we're 35 years further on now and there's no sign of it.”

He brings this history moment to the present day.

'John Key is a lovely man, but once the hoo-ha has died down, his legacy will be that that inequality gap opened up again, even further,” says Gareth. 'That has been driven primarily by the property phenomena which is really hurting people in terms of how much of their income is being sucked up by property costs.”

Clearly what he is trying to do is fix what he feels is an unfair system 'so we can start to make the NZ tax system fair again”.

'All I want is for them to do the right thing,” says Gareth. 'I've said a number of times now I don't want to be in Government. I'd rather be on the cross benches and be the tail that wags the dog. I don't care who the dog is.”

It's about starting another robust conversation with average New Zealanders. A fat cats and dog conversation.

'I've always gone directly to the public, I've never really dealt with the politicians because at the end of the day they will only do what they think will get them re-elected, so I need to get the sentiment of the people changed so that they can see that this is actually a far better system.

'My dream would be that they do it and I don't have to go into that madhouse. I've got better things to do to be honest, but if I ‘ve got to give up three years of my life to bloody do this, and people say yeah get in and do it then I will. But I'm a bit reluctant. I have better things to do than buggering up my own life.”

Is he quite sure he'll find resonance with most kiwis?

'Well this is high noon isn't it,” he replies. 'We'll see. Under my thing 80 per cent of people will be better off immediately, we'll all be better off in time and the 20 per cent who are basically funding this can well afford it, I assure you. So I'm asking those 20 per cent to do the decent thing and make our country fair again.”

His tax reform policy will suck the incentive out of property investors to be putting all their money into property. It will also slow down land banking, and target cities like Auckland and Tauranga.

Under his policy, land bankers would have to declare each year a taxable income of whatever the percentage is, say 3 or 5 percent of the value of the land.

'They can't just sit on it and make their tax free capital gains,” says Gareth. 'It won't be possible, unless they're prepared to play that game.

'What it will do is make housing more affordable. I'm trying to hold house prices while we get some time for income to catch up again. We'll phase it in so we don't collapse house prices, but we'll take the heat out of it because all the speculators who are only buying their 3^rd and 4^th houses just to make money will be gone out of the market.

'And that money they would otherwise invest will be going into NZ businesses, and they'll be able to expand jobs and incomes.

"We'll get rid of this bloody mortgage dependency that sees our prime minister going round and round the globe on this endless bloody journey, - no wonder the guy's exhausted, - with his begging bowl out begging for foreign capital and sees our treasury telling us you've got to cut your taxes even more on foreign companies.

"I want to bring an end to all that rubbish.”

He says the NZ business community keeps screaming out how they can't get capital or investment because it's all going into housing.

'People can make money sitting on their rentals, so I take that away and they have to grow their businesses,” says Gareth.

'I'm worried that my grandkids won't be able to afford rent let alone buy a house the way this thing's currently going. It's just nonsense. New Zealand is having by far the fastest rise in ratio of house prices to income and we've got to deal with it.”

He thinks the current bunch of politicians have cemented themselves to the short-term or three-year goal of getting re-elected.

'They avoid the tough decisions,” says Gareth.

'Half of the time they propose policies that won't even achieve what they say they will.

'Rosalie, the point is I don't want a job. I don't need a job. I'm doing this because I've spent 40 years of my career on this stuff, -economics, and I know what I'm talking about. Shivers, how can I walk away from this in all consciousness?”

Unperturbed by his past deliberate provocations, Gareth is laying out what he believes is an aspirational blueprint for both those who are benefitting from the property prices, and those who find themselves stymied from home ownership. He wants to light a fuse, and influence the government of the day.

'Let New Zealand decide,” he declares.