‘Haven’t given them any thought’: PM dismisses Opportunity as a vote for the left following poll
Wednesday, 24 June 2026
National leader Christopher Luxon has dismissed the Opportunity Party, as a new poll shows them close to entering Parliament.
The 1News-Verian poll released on Tuesday night showed National at just 29% support and out of Government, with Opportunity close to the 5% threshold for entering Parliament at 4.6%.
Luxon was asked by reporters on Wednesday if he had considered whether he might need to form a coalition with Opportunity after the election, given the poor performance of National and its coalition partners, but said he had not.
“I haven't given them any thought. Their policy prescription looks like a Greens and Labour policy,” Luxon said.
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“Frankly, it looks like a vote for Labour and the Greens. You know, they want a land tax, they want to make every New Zealander a beneficiary with a universal basic income.”
National dropped by one percentage point in the poll, from 30% down to 29% ‒ the first time the party has been in the 20s under Luxon as leader in this poll.
Meanwhile, the Greens were up by 2%, from 11% to 13%, NZ First moved up from 10% to 11%, ACT dropped by 1%, down to 6%, and Te Pāti Māori (TPM) are on 1.8%, up 0.3%.
The poll broadly brings National’s support into line with where other pollsters, including The Post/Freshwater Strategy, see the party.
1News suggested these results would result in a majority for the left bloc, but this relied on TPM winning at least some seats. If the party was wiped out, the coalition would retain power.
But if Opportunity entered Parliament it would be extremely difficult for the current parties of the coalition to muster a majority.
Luxon’s fellow National MPs appear unfazed about the poll result on their way into Parliament.
“Look, we're not worried about polls, polls jump around,” said National MP Catherine Wedd on Wednesday morning.
“We’re just focused on working hard as a Government, and yeah, we've got a lot on at the moment,” she said.
National MP Chris Penk shared similar sentiments to his colleagues ‒ saying his party was not overly fixated on any one number, though “obviously, we'd like to be as high as possible”.
He said his party was more focused on “fixing the basics and building the future” than the polls.
“I think come November we will be rewarded by the New Zealand public if we do that.
“But obviously, times have been tough for the last few years, and you see that's never going to be easy for an incumbent government on polling.”
National MP Nicola Grigg said she couldn’t answer why National had dropped into the 20s, but did say “we’ve got lots of work to do, like everyone else does”.
“We'll be doing everything we can to come back. I think it'd be the worst decision possible for there to be a change of government in this country.”
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March said it was too early to say whether the Greens would work with the Opportunity Party and while the two parties were on the rise, they were competing for different votes.
“We clearly have some shared visions, but the risk of the Opportunity Party is that they could keep Luxon in power.”
The bump in support for the Greens, up 2 points to 13%, reflected the public favouring its recently announced policy to tax the rich.
Labour’s drop in support was down to voters wanting “real change”, he said.
Labour MP Cushla Tangaere‑Manuel said “naturally, we're happy to be leading the polls. Obviously, there's still mahi to do, and we're here to do it”.
Labour is down 5 points, the biggest drop in support from any party, but with the party ahead of National by 3%, she said “leading is leading”.
The drop in support is despite various policies released by the party in recent weeks, including a fare cap for public transport and making prescriptions free.
She did not comment on the Opportunity Party, saying she was focused on Labour.
“If you want to make sure your vote has value, vote Labour,” she said in response to questions about a wasted vote for the Opportunity Party if they continued polling below 5%.
“New Zealanders are feeling the pinch right now, so a lot of our whānau aren't actually thinking about this, they're thinking about how they're going to get through the next day, and so that's why we continue to work hard, continue to develop policies that will actually have a material impact on our whanau.”