Homegrown success stories like Xero and Rocket Lab show that Kiwi creativity can change the world. But these don't happen by accident. It's time to get our innovation foundations right, so New Zealand can become the best place in the world to start and scale a business.

With the right innovation ecosystem in-place, we can design the kind of economic growth we want. Instead of pumping-up GDP with old tricks like direct sector subsidies, extractive industries or low-skill migration boosts, let's align capital with smart people, cutting-edge science and the means to go to global markets. To make this generational leap in productivity growth, new business development and market fairness, Opportunity will:

• Incentivise capital to shift into business investment instead of property, using a Land Value Tax and by making retirement saving compulsory.
• Raise our national spending on research & development to at least 2% of GDP by boosting tax credits and properly funding core scientific research.
• Put people at the centre of innovation. We'll lure talent back through student loan interest forgiveness and loosen up migration rules for high wage, in-demand workers.
• End wasteful direct subsidies to sectors like racing, gaming and tourism.
• Open and properly regulate emerging sectors like cannabis and gene-technology — ensuring businesses innovate safely.
• Build a gold-standard regulatory environment for AI development.
• Support SMEs to develop the capabilities they need to grow.
• Rein in the monopoly sectors that aren't competing to bring prices down — including our supermarkets, banks and building material suppliers. It's not right that these businesses make record profits while ordinary Kiwis cut household budgets and our economy stalls, so we'll strengthen the Commerce Act and boost funding to the Commerce Commission.

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