The Opportunity Party’s leader Qiulae Wong.
Photo: RNZ / Supplied
The new-look Opportunity Party is leaving a cat-related debacle behind, and has a new leader, new investors and a new purpose.
The Opportunity Party (TOP) has been singled out as possibly being the dark horse of this election.
On The Detail last week, RNZ’s Guyon Espiner mused at the possibility of the party formerly known as TOP breaking into Parliament through a potential electoral accommodation by Labour in the seat of Mt Albert, suggesting it would be a less scary path to victory than relying on a coalition with Te Pāti Māori or the Greens.
The latest 1News Verian Poll put the party at 3.3 percent; it needs 5 percent to break in to the Beehive.
Opportunity has a new leader in Qiulae Wong, a couple of investors who’ve made sure it’s in better financial health than it’s been previously, and a comprehensive policy platform.
On Friday, The Detail spoke to Wong, and also to the man who could perhaps be described as the definition of a successful minor party, former United Future leader Peter Dunne.
Dunne says the Opportunity Party is in a better position this election than they have been previously – and also in a better position than a number of small parties have been at this stage in the electoral cycle.
“Without trying to make a play on words, the opportunities are there for them… but if people still don’t know who they are, and still think they’re the party who wants to get rid of cats, it’s going to be an uphill battle.”
Former United Future MP Peter Dunne
Photo: RNZ
Economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan launched TOP in November 2016 to much fanfare, promising to challenge the politics of mediocrity in New Zealand.
It’s never broken through the five percent threshold of votes and Morgan stepped down after the first failure… tainted by his personal anti-cat campaign, when he urged people to keep their pets indoors and not replace them when they die. Cat lovers were not impressed.
There’s no cat policy now – there never was – and Wong says she’s a cat lover. She’s said it was nine years ago and we all just need to let it go – but that people do still ask her about it.
The party is firmly centrist, branded as blue-green, and won’t express a preference for a coalition party saying it could work with National or Labour.
Dunne points out it’s early days yet to talk about that – the immediate challenge for Opportunity is the ‘wasted vote’ concept.
“The real problem I certainly found with United Future, that people liked what we were saying, liked what we stood for, but didn’t really believe we could win, therefore can’t waste the vote on you. And I think that’s the same dilemma TOP faces at the moment.
“But of course if those people went out and supported them, then it would happen. It’s a funny thing, people feel that if they vote for someone that can’t be guaranteed is going to succeed, then they’ve wasted their vote.
“It’s a real mindset – that they want to see a return for their vote if you like. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way.”
Need for raising its profile
Dunne says another difficulty is that it’s hard for new parties to emerge from outside Parliament, and now that legislation prevents sitting MPs from swapping parties, that’s become even harder.
“They start not having the profile, if you like, of a Parliamentary presence, and that counts against them.”
He says the party will need to raise its profile, and has a real opportunity under new leadership to differentiate itself.
“But the challenges will be getting sufficient of those opportunities so they get their message across to the public, and then persuading the public they’re not just a sort of a protest vote or a dream vote, they are a viable option.”
Dismissive of Mt Albert idea
As well as being the new party leader, Qiulae Wong is standing in the seat of Prime Ministers – Mt Albert, where three former Labour PMs have won elections.
There have been suggestions there might be a David Seymour/Epsom-style arrangement there with Labour, but Wong throws cold water on the idea.
“We have not talked to them,” she says. (Not about strategy, anyway.)
“I think it would be really hard for us to do a deal, because our leverage point is the fact that we can work with both sides, and to pick a side right now would really undermine that. And genuinely we want to keep that door open for either National or Labour.
“That’s how you can be a strong centrist party – that you can hold both sides accountable.”
On The Detail, Wong spoke about key policies, which include a different approach to tax based on the Universal Basic Income or what the party calls a ‘Citizen Income’.
It would like to see a tax reset which would eventually mean big changes for superannuation, including means testing, and offsetting a minimum payment for everyone against a new tax on land.
Wong admits though that as a minor party entering Parliament for the first time, overnight tax reform is unlikely something it would get across the line.
“We’re like a start-up business, you can’t do everything.”
The policy she would push the most if she got a chance is the one on energy.
“It’s obviously a big topic this year, and our number one thing as part of our energy policy is to get a 25-year energy strategy in place that is genuinely created in a bi-partisan way in collaboration with industry.
“That’s the number one thing I hear from businesses, from communities, from people in the energy sector – we don’t know where we’re going.
“Are we investing in a low-emissions future that’s fully renewable, or do we not care, are we just going to take fossil fuels from the rest of the world… that uncertainty is really dangerous and it’s challenging for our economy.”
The Opportunity Party has laid out its policies on its website.
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