‘Everyone on welfare’: Seymour dismisses potential kingmaker party as ‘left of the Greens’

Tuesday, 14 July 2026

David Seymour has said the Opportunity Party is left of the Greens, but could still perhaps work with them.

Seymour’s comment comes as the minor party experienced a result of 4.7% in a new poll.

The Opportunity Party has previously said they are a centrist party that could work with both National and Labour.

ACT leader David Seymour has dismissed the Opportunity Party as “left of the Greens,” but has not completely ruled out working with them.

A new political poll released on Tuesday showed Opportunity polling at 4.7%. It was the second poll in the past month that had the party just shy of the 5% threshold needed to enter Parliament.

Opportunity has positioned itself as a potential kingmaker, with party leader Qiulae Wong previously saying she was willing to work with both Labour and National.

Asked about Opportunity’s rise on Tuesday, and whether ACT could work with them in government, Seymour was quick to paint the party as political rivals.

“I think it’s becoming clear to people that they are a left-wing party. Their basic premise is everyone on welfare, and then pay for that by taxing your property,” he said, referring to Opportunity’s policies of a universal basic income and a land value tax.

“That is to the left of the Greens,” Seymour continued. “The Greens must be envious that they haven’t thought of something that left-wing… Maybe they’ll copy the policy.”

Seymour strongly doubted Opportunity would form a government with the right bloc given what he said was a clear set of left-wing policies.

“I think as people see the picture, they’ll ask themselves, ‘Where’s this party that presented itself as being in the centre and could go either way?’ When really it’s hard left. I think that’s the real challenge for them,” he said.

“So let’s see. They’re not there [at 5%] yet. Maybe they’ll get there. Maybe we could work with them. But it seems almost impossible to imagine, and there’s lots of reasons why that scenario becomes less likely.”

Seymour’s comments echo the criticisms of National leader Christopher Luxon, who said last month a vote for Opportunity “looks like a vote for Labour and the Greens”.

“They want a land tax, they want to make every New Zealander a beneficiary with a universal basic income,” Luxon said. “I haven’t given them any thought. Their policy prescription looks like a Greens and Labour policy.”

Wong told Stuff earlier this month that Luxon’s assessment was wrong, and that both left-wing and right-wing commentators had accused the party of sympathising with the other side.

“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,” she said.

Responding to Seymour’s comments on Tuesday afternoon, Wong told Stuff that political tribalism was “taking us nowhere” and that was why people were turning to the Opportunity Party to be what she called a “circuit-breaker”.

“Kiwis expect better political conversations that start with honesty about our problems and evidence-backed ways to solve them,” she said.

Labour hasn’t reached out to the party as a possible coalition partner, either.

Party leader Chris Hipkins told TVNZ on Tuesday that Opportunity still had a “very, very steep hill ahead of them to climb, to get over the 5% threshold in an actual election campaign”.

He also said there was a risk that people who vote for Opportunity, with the intention of seeing a change of government, could see the party end up supporting a National-led government, or falling short of 5% and helping to re-elect the coalition with its “wasted vote”.

The Opportunity Party is aiming to become the first party from outside Parliament to get elected since the first MMP election in 1996.