He's infamous for ‘hating' cats, even though we now know that's not true. He's also known for making money from the sale of TradeMe, or for riling up New Zealanders with intermittent policy advice.

But now Gareth Morgan is on the political warpath, hoping to make some of his economic and social ideas a reality.

SunLive interviewed him about his new political movement, the Opportunities Party. The first question was about his motivation for getting into politics, and immediately he set us straight.

'I don't want to get into politics,” he says.

'What I want to do is get policy in New Zealand improved, so far more New Zealanders share in the benefits and prosperity. So that's the reason I'm doing it – not because I'm looking for a job.”

He says he's been working on social and economic policy his entire life but now he's reached a point where he wants to create some real change.

'It's got to the point where I'm 63 years of age, so if I'm going to force the pace on these issues I have to go into politics and give it a go. I've been asked for many years to go into politics, and I've always said no. I'm just not interested in it, you know? I'm interested in policy more than politics.

'But after 40 years of working in this area, I've decided I've got my head around what we need to do to make New Zealand both fair and prosperous.”

The next few weeks will focus on public engagement around policies, with Gareth hoping for a robust discussion.

'People can tell me what they think of the policies. If they think it's garbage and I should go back to the beach, I will. If they say, ‘No, no, this is bloody good, get in there and give it to them,' then I will.”

Regardless of the response, one thing he's firm on is the desire to make a real difference. He's not interested in being a one-man band, which is why the party will be list-only.

'I don't want to be in parliament to make up the numbers.

'As I keep saying to people, I'm not looking for a job. I'm either in there, with the party having influence, or we're not there. So I figured if we just go on the list, we'll get enough seats to make a difference, although obviously it depends on how the votes fall.

'I mean, Winston's in there with a few seats, but he's got no influence at all, at the moment. I thought, if we can get half a dozen seats then I'll take a gamble on it. That's why we can't do an electorate, because you might end up with just one guy in there, and that's a waste of space.”

Either way, Gareth won't be making a decision on running until March, when the policies are all released and the waters have been thoroughly tested.

'People will either be giving me the shove, or showing me the love,” he laughs.

Gareth says policies he has previously brought up, like a universal basic income, are good, but there are questions about their funding that need answering, which is what the public engagement is about.

As to where his political party sits on the political spectrum, he says it's really tricky.

'I can tell you, from looking at the membership already, we've had all these different people join and we haven't even released any policy yet.

'I met one lady at the dairy, who said she had joined. And I asked her, ‘What did you do that for? You don't even know what I'm going to say?' And she said it doesn't matter, because she knows who I am and what I value, and that was good enough for her.”

Gareth suspects they will attract support from anybody disaffected with the mainstream parties.

'The way I see it is we'll probably draw support from people who care, not just about themselves or even their immediate family and friends, but for all New Zealanders,” he says.

'And you know, those people are everywhere.”