The Opportunity Party ‘would be happy’ to go into coalition with National
Thursday, 2 July 2026
The Opportunity Party says it would be happy to go into coalition with National or Labour.
National’s Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have previously characterised the party as left-wing.
Leader Qiulae Wong says New Zealand politics needs to break away from the left-right tribalism.
The Opportunity Party has taken the opportunity to say it “would be happy” to go into coalition with National, while launching its economic policy.
The party has previously said it would negotiate with the party that gets the most votes on election night and has styled itself as a centrist party that can work across the political spectrum.
Speaking at the launch of the party’s economic policy on Thursday, leader Qiulae Wong said Opportunity would work with either National or Labour.
“We would be happy to go into a coalition with National or Labour. They are our first choice[s] for coalition partners.”
Opportunity’s courting of National comes despite Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis characterising the party as left-wing.
Last week, both Luxon and Willis said “they look like a Labour-Green bunch,' when asked about Opportunity.
Luxon said: “They want a land tax, they want to make every New Zealander a beneficiary with a universal basic income,” he said.
Stuff asked Wong whether she agreed with National's assessment of Opportunity as a leftist party, to which she said left-wing commentators had called them a right-wing party.
“I think it just demonstrates that we are so obsessed with this tribalism and left-right politics in New Zealand, and we have to break free from that; otherwise, we'll continue to see the flip-flop and pendulum politics.”
Opportunity will need to break the 5% threshold to enter parliament or win an electorate seat. The party polled at 4.6% in a recent poll.
Opportunity’s policy launch
On Tuesday, the party announced a new economic policy which it said was designed to fund New Zealand innovators and businesses to stand up to 'uncompetitive market sectors”.
The policy included lifting research and development spending by at least 2% of GDP, forgiving student loan interest for returning New Zealanders, and giving the Commerce Commission the power to break up duopolies.
Asked whether these policies would get the party across the 5% threshold, Wong said they were 'relevant to every Kiwi”.
“I think competition, in particular, is something that every single New Zealander feels, whether that's at the checkout, whether that's in their electricity bill, in the cost of building a house.
“We feel those prices every single day. That is why people are going to Australia, not just for the higher wages, but because the cost of living is lower as well,” she said.
Whether these would be bottom line policies for the party in any coalition negotiations remains to be seen. Wong said it was “too early” to set “very clear bottom lines”.
“We are planning to do that closer to the election. We kind of need to see what Labour and National put on the table as well, and to figure out where we can push them a little bit harder,” she said.