During prospective coalition talks, Qiulae Wong, head of the Opportunity party, thinks her group could discover “common ground” alongside New Zealand First and Winston Peters. Wong’s comments come after Opportunity saw a surge in a 1News Verian poll, rising to 8%. Wong stated that her party is willing to work with all parties, including National and Labour.
Coalition Numbers and the Kingmaker Scenario
Fifty-seven seats—which falls short of maintaining power—would be secured by an alliance between National (29%), Act (9%), and NZ First (8%), based on findings from the 1News Verian survey. The left-leaning bloc—comprising Labour at 30%, the Greens at 12%, and Te Pāti Māori, who were projected to hold onto their six Māori electorate seats—would likewise fall short of the required total. Given these polling outcomes, Opportunity would comfortably secure a spot in Parliament and likely serve as the kingmaker in determining the upcoming administration. Electorate seats are assumed to be held by their incumbents.
Major Party Stances on Tax Policy and Cooperation
Opportunity proposes a tax platform featuring a universal basic income reaching up to $370 weekly alongside a 1.75% land value levy on urban properties. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appeared to rule them out over tax policy disagreements, something he repeated. Regarding future cooperation, Labour leader Chris Hipkins has stated there is “no way” his organisation would back Opportunity’s tax scheme, though he intends to make a final decision on prospective alliance partners closer to the vote.
Speaking on Breakfast, Wong said: “I think nobody really believes they wouldn’t pick up the phone if they didn’t need to talk to us.” Wong also responded to dramatic scenes at Parliament where National MPs were summoned for an urgent meeting amid speculation about Luxon’s leadership, where he survived a confidence vote and sacked Cabinet minister Chris Penk for launching a challenge against him, stating: “I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on the leadership of any of the parties… The reality is that it’s going to be either Labour or National… so we are going to have to find a way to work with them.”
Bottom Lines on Winston Peters and New Zealand First
Negotiations might hit another hurdle with Winston Peters, as Opportunity has declared it will refuse to partner with any administration featuring the NZ First chief as Foreign Minister. This was in response to comments Peters made in the House directed at Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan – telling the Chinese-born lawmaker to “go back to your own country”. Wong has called the comments “racist”.
While Wong said that NZ First is “probably the party that we have the least in common with”, there was a possibility of finding common ground, noting: “There are some things that they’ve talked about around tackling supermarkets [and] our energy market that we have some good solutions on.” Regarding other ministerial roles, Wong said “we can’t make that call until we see what the offer is” and “We’re not ruling any of those other roles out at this stage.”