Gareth Morgan, who founded Opportunity in 2017, said it was “fantastic” to see the party become a contender in this election.
Opportunity was on 7% in the latest 1News Verian poll.
He said leader Qiulae Wong was “telegenic” and “just the tonic we need”.
“She’s a good politician, she doesn’t get ruffled, and I think represents what the party was built for,” he told Breakfast today.
Wong, campaigning in Christchurch today, said the praise was “very generous”.
“I’m just trying to put out our vision for the country. I think New Zealanders are looking for some aspiration and some direction,” she told 1News.
Morgan said their policies were “pretty much on song” with what he led the party on in 2017.
“Tax and welfare reform is the centrepiece and by far the most needed component. And then you’ve got the environmental climate and respect for the treaty components. So everything is there.”
The land tax was “a bit rough around the edges”, however.
“I actually don’t like it,” Morgan said.
“The big problem in the New Zealand economy is that we waste capital. We invest in low-productivity areas. By far, the biggest one is owner-occupied housing.
“But this land tax, it taxes everything. So if I’m a farmer working my guts out and making taxable income, then the land tax comes on top of it. Or I’m a landlord, and I’ve got a whole lot of tenancies, and I’m paying tax; the land tax comes on top of it.
“That’s not how I designed it.”
Morgan said the biggest risk Opportunity faced was slipping to the left.
“I used to say in ’17 to the team, ‘Unless we get tradies with ladders on their roofs and their families voting for Opportunity, then we are just another left party, and we will disappear’. We need that centre-right vote.”
Morgan said the party needed to “firmly distinguish itself” as being in the centre.
Most polls suggest Opportunity could hold the balance of power after election day, and will likely decide the next government.
Morgan suggested the party avoid entering into a coalition and stay on the cross benches instead.
“I think it’d be far more powerful to stay out of cabinet and just support the government, but you know, just chip away, defining your brand all the way through this next term and hoping that you get some more momentum in the next election.”
Wong said Morgan was entitled to his opinion, but he was “not actually involved in the party anymore”. She noted she hadn’t yet seen his remarks.
“We’ve been really clear about our position and the fact that we can work with either Labour or National. We’ve been generous with bottom lines, and I think that we can genuinely make some progress on those things with either side.”
She said the party’s five bottom lines “should have happened by now”.
Morgan expected the party to make it into Parliament as “people are so sick of this two-party system that’s taking us nowhere”.
“Real wages aren’t increasing like they should, and you get polarisation in the electorate, the haves and the have-nots.
On the campaign trail
Wong said the party was chasing the party vote across the country, with three candidates in Canterbury “door knocking, events, markets, working extremely hard”.
Canterbury University Young Opportunity club vice president Gabriella Jones said the existing political parties had not been very good at identifying real solutions.
“I feel like Opportunity has those solutions, real solutions to real problems with evidence-based policy that I think is lacking in the other parties at the moment.”
Jones, who has not yet been able to vote in a general election, said she would prefer the party to side with the Labour-led bloc after the election.
Another supporter, who voted Greens at the last election, said she was unsure which side Opportunity should back.
“I’m really curious to see what the party can push for in coalition agreements because I think it can work pretty well with either side.”