Matt Harris

Matt Harris is the Opportunity candidate for Rangitata. He has lived in Mid Canterbury since 2012 and has a long-standing connection to the area through extended family, work, and community life.

Matt brings over 30 years of professional experience since completing his engineering degree, working across technology, infrastructure, and complex systems. His career has focused on improving how systems perform in the real world - aligning stakeholders, managing trade-offs, and ensuring decisions based on data lead to practical outcomes.

He is motivated by a belief that New Zealand needs calmer, more evidence-based decision-making, with a stronger focus on long-term outcomes rather than short-term ping-pong political cycles. He is particularly interested in how better incentives and clearer thinking can improve everyday outcomes for people and communities. He supports Opportunity’s Tax Reset, including a Citizen’s Income, and sees it as a practical way to improve fairness, strengthen incentives, and ensure all New Zealanders have a secure foundation.

Matt lives at Lake Hood with his family. His wife works in the health sector, and their three children have all attended local schools, including Ashburton College, with his son still there and his two daughters now at university. He believes Rangitata is a place of strong communities and real opportunity, and that it deserves thoughtful, practical representation focused on what actually works and improves everyday life for people. He is standing to offer voters in Rangitata a credible alternative focused on evidence‑based, long‑term decision‑making.