Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective.

OPINION: Last month I made my first trip out to Gibbs Farm, or perhaps better named Gibbs Folly. A wonderful example of excess and indulgence that had traces of Hearst’s California Castle. It was magnificent and a delight to take the family.

Alan Gibbs is one of most significant and impactful businessmen. From a solid, middle-class background, Gibbs amassed a fortune over many decades through a series of bold bets backed by hard work. He was a central figure in the acquisition of Telecom from the Crown and the explosion of productivity that the privatisation of the telco unleashed.

Gibbs wasn’t, however, only focused on making money.

He was interested in the future of his country and was involved in the Business Roundtable, the founding of Act and has been known to heavily fund the political party.

Today he keeps a lower profile, but his legacy is far more significant than a sculpture park and a string of business triumphs. Gibbs believed in ideas. He was active in the ferment of change that was the fourth Labour government and the NZ Initiative is a successor to his Business Roundtable.

So, it wasn’t just to admire the art that took me to Gibbs Farm last month. The Taxpayers’ Union was hosting an event to celebrate its 10 years of success. Ten years of irreverent activism and uncompromising populism that has held the governmental feet of both main political parties to the fiscally responsible fire.

Readers will not be surprised to learn that me and my business enterprises belong to both the Taxpayers’ Union and the NZ Initiative. I will never have the impact of Alan Gibbs, but that is no reason not to play my small part in backing those that are actively advancing policies I believe in.

Jordan Williams and David Farrar founded the Union, although it has been Williams who emerged as the face of the operation, and in the last couple of years he has emerged as one of the most potent political actors in the land of the low-sitting cloud.

He was the midwife of the Free Speech Union and his focused energy and ability to read the public mood proved a potent mix that forced Jacinda Ardern to abandon any thoughts of a wealth-tax, and spooked Chris Hipkins into diluting the co-governance parts of Three Waters that had been, under his predecessor, a sacral undertaking.

Meanwhile, Dr Oliver Hartwich and his team at the NZ Initiative have spent a decade diligently compiling academic papers, writing columns and leading delegations to obscure European nations, all in a quest to bring better ideas into the heart of policy.

For years this must have seen a pointless task, as successive governments talked game in Opposition and reverted to anaemic from once elected; doing nothing to improve our country if it came with even a whiff of electoral impairment.

And yet, the wins for the initiative are coming thick and fast.

Some observers have noticed aspects of the government’s policy commitments closely resemble some of the ideas the initiative has been advocating for, for many years, and last week one of its researchers, Senior Fellow Dr Michael Johnston was appointed to chair a powerful government panel to advise the Minister of Education on the national curriculum.

The challenge for both outfits under a nominally conservative government will be to move the ball forward. The failure of Sir John Key’s government to make structural change is a lesson of the importance in not relying on political promises and the Taxpayers’ Union hasn’t been slow to highlight the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon’s administration when caught having taxpayer-funded te reo lessons.

However, this column isn’t just a recruiting drive for these two excellent outfits. It’s a call to action for our progressive friends who are now looking at an extended spell in Opposition.

Where is the initiative on the left? Where do the energised radicals go when the schools get sold and Landcorp broken up? The intellectual cupboard is looking bare.

Ardern had nine years as an Opposition MP and yet seemed blindsided when thrust into office. She didn’t lack for ambition, she wanted to be transformational and take the country with her. But she didn’t know where to go or how to get there.

Kiwibuild was a nonsense idea cooked up on the fly and wanting to reduce child poverty is a noble goal, but it was evident she had no strategy to achieve the aspiration.

The unions have, historically, been a useful source of funding and organisation. But they are not centres of intellectual thought. We have the Helen Clark Foundation, where another former Prime Minister employs staffers to write long think-pieces about the things she didn’t enact when she had the chance and while I applaud the effort, if not the recommendations, it isn’t enough.

The left have an opportunity to use this time to pause.

To think what they want to achieve and what actual policies will get them there.

To engage more widely than academics and performance-progressives who are more interested in looking good than doing good.

Government matters. Ideas matter. In time, Labour will return to the Treasury benches.

Currently, the agenda is being set by the extremists, by the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and a cohort of incoherent dilettantes who mistake social-media engagement for policy development.

Opposition can be a gift. It is in the nation’s interest that they use this time wisely and the success of Jordan Williams and Dr Hartwich are examples of what, with time and genuine engagement, can be achieved.