{"id":286052,"date":"2026-02-16T01:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286052\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:48:21","slug":"iain-lees-galloway-on-crashing-out-of-parliament-and-his-new-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286052\/","title":{"rendered":"Iain Lees-Galloway on crashing out of parliament and his new Opportunity\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

He went to therapy, grieved the career he torpedoed with an inappropriate relationship, and now former Labour minister Iain Lees-Galloway is back in politics with a new party.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something threatening to burst out of Iain Lees-Galloway. It seems to be filling his chest, widening his eyes. Is it ambition? Optimism? Some might say it\u2019s wishful thinking. Whatever \u2013 it\u2019s palpable, intense, and when he opens his mouth, it comes out in a torrent of ideas, hopes, policy and plans. There\u2019s so much of it, I\u2019m worried it might start pooling on the restaurant table between us.<\/p>\n

I can feel the ambition coming off you, I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood,\u201d he says and laughs.<\/p>\n

Rain pours down outside the window, because it\u2019s the middle of summer and it\u2019s Wellington. Political lines pour forth from Lees-Galloway because the one-time senior Labour minister is back. Back in politics, back in campaign mode, back giving an in-depth interview for the first time since he flamed out of Jacinda Ardern\u2019s coalition government in 2020, after admitting to an affair with a staff member.<\/p>\n

Since then, he\u2019s held positions at the nurses\u2019 union and Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance, completed an MBA, and gone to therapy (\u201cthank god that exists now\u201d) to work through the grief of what he did to his career, his family, his reputation. Now, despite being so publicly KO-ed in the brutal sport of politics, he wants back in the ring. God only knows why.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI see an opportunity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an opportunity with a capital O. Last month, the 47-year-old officially became general manager of the Opportunity Party and, together with new leader Qiulae Wong, he has ambitious plans. The party will run about 30 electorate candidates in this year\u2019s election, more than double the 13 it ran in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the party vote they\u2019re really gunning for. He believes they can make it over the 5% threshold on November 7 and into parliament. That\u2019s despite the party\u2019s best election result occurring back in 2017 when it clocked 2.4% of the vote. That\u2019s despite the fact that under MMP, no new party has ever made it into parliament via the party vote.<\/p>\n

Ambition, optimism, or wishful thinking?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people are looking for something different. They are looking for an antidote to populism, they\u2019re looking for an antidote to the division, and our challenge is to demonstrate that we have got the people, as well as the policies, as well as the organisation to be that solution,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He has a booming voice with a back note of gravel. He uses it to paint a vision of Opportunity as a teal party (combining environmentalism and pro-business policies) sitting at the centre of the political spectrum, in coalition with National or Labour. He sees the party getting legislation in place that will pass the test of time, halting the pattern of law-making and overturning, law-making and overturning, as power is knocked back and forth between sides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He says he joined the party because of his concern for the environment. \u201cI think we need a party in parliament that can prioritise the environment and make it a priority, regardless of whether the right or the left is in parliament, is in government. The environment should not be a left-right ideological issue, and it\u2019s too important an issue for it to be parked every time the right is in government.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Founded in 2016 by the colourful businessman, economist, philanthropist and enemy of roaming cats<\/a> Gareth Morgan, The Opportunities Party, or TOP, as it was then known, was built around the idea that evidence rather than ideology should inform policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lees-Galloway, who was in opposition as Palmerston North\u2019s MP when TOP launched, remembers thinking the party\u2019s policies had merit and that it might have legs. \u201cI watched with curiosity as to how they would do in the election,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThen, of course, Gareth started talking in the election campaign, and I thought to myself, \u2018what a shame\u2019.\u201d He stops to laugh, before continuing: \u201cWhat a shame that they haven\u2019t actually grasped what is necessary to win an election, to actually garner votes and get in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was missing was the emotional connection, the interest in what voters wanted and what voters\u2019 concerns and issues were. So, you know, they had great ideas, but if you just go out there and tell people, \u2018we\u2019ve got great policy and it\u2019s good for you and you should vote for it,\u2019 the evidence tells us that people are not going to vote for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why he thinks the party\u2019s fourth election, under its fourth leader (Geoff Simmons and Raf Manji followed Morgan) will be the one in which it cracks 5%. He thinks he can solve its connection problem. He\u2019ll do it by running more candidates so that real humans are on the ground in local communities and he\u2019ll do it by letting new leader Qiulae Wong be herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I would say this, I\u2019m not going to say anything else, but\u2026 people are impressed. They like the way she carries herself. They like the fact that she\u2019s not an old-school politician, and they like her background. Yeah, they like her CV, but they like her, they like her demeanour. She\u2019s got a magic combination of competence and warmth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ding, ding, ding! Iain Lees-Galloway is back in the ring, but this time he\u2019s in the corner holding the water bottle and spit bucket for Qiulae Wong.<\/p>\n

Wong comes into politics fresh, from a background in ethical and sustainable business. Over the phone she says she\u2019s leaning hard on Lees-Galloway\u2019s experience. \u201cThis is all pretty new to me, and having his guidance and experience has just, countless times, been valuable in the last couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, everyone in Opportunity has always been fresh until Lees-Galloway, she reckons. \u201cI don\u2019t believe the party\u2019s ever had someone with that kind of experience really working day-to-day on the campaign, so I think that\u2019ll make a huge difference to this year.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will need to. While the party considers itself centrist, its ideas will be radical to many voters. This year it wants to push the message that growth at any cost is an outdated idea and that the economy and businesses need to work with nature. It will also campaign on a citizens\u2019 income (a payment at about the rate of the jobseekers\u2019 allowance paid to most New Zealanders), a land tax, and a single flat rate income tax for most individuals and companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lees-Galloway first became involved with the party two years ago. He knew he wanted to mentor a new generation of politicians rather than lead the party or go for a seat in parliament himself, and about a year ago he volunteered as a manager. Toward the end of 2025, he announced Wong\u2019s appointment and then on January 19, with his wife\u2019s support, he locked in, turning his political hobby into his second run at a full-time political gig, this time as general manager of the Opportunity Party.<\/p>\n

The following week, National minister Judith Collins resigned. After 24 years as an MP, she\u2019d reached her political end, right as Lees-Galloway was embarking on a new beginning. The timing! It was Collins, of course, back in July 2020, who spelled the beginning of Minister Lees-Galloway\u2019s abrupt end.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judith Collins was getting absolutely killed. The blows were coming from every angle. She\u2019d been National Party leader for less than a week, stepping into the role, blinking, when Todd Muller crashed out of the leadership after 53 days. Muller left her with the tailwinds of a mess created by Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker, who had released private Covid-19 patient data to the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the fistful of days since, MPs Amy Adams and Nikki Kaye \u2013 who had backed Muller \u2013 announced they were retiring. Then, a sex scandal: the parents of a teenager contacted prime minister Jacinda Ardern\u2019s office alleging Rangitata National MP Andrew Falloon had sent her explicit, unsolicited messages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

At first, Falloon side-stepped the allegations, announcing he\u2019d retire at the next election because of mental health issues, but within hours, news of the pornographic messages broke. Then more women with more allegations about more messages. Falloon, who has maintained his Facebook account was compromised after his password appeared in a data leak, resigned.<\/p>\n

Collins was on the ropes. She threw a punch. \u201cI spoke to the prime minister yesterday as we were coming out of question time,\u201d she told the AM Show. \u201cI asked to speak to her and I said I had received\u2026\u00a0 a tip-off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ardern called a media conference and showed up with her serious face on, that one we all knew so well by then. She announced Lees-Galloway, the minister of ACC, immigration and (wince) workplace relations and safety had admitted to a year-long, consensual relationship with a person who had previously worked in his office and then in one of his agencies. She was stripping him of his ministerial portfolios.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn undertaking this relationship he has opened himself up to accusations of improperly using his office,\u201d she said of the married minister. \u201cHe has not modelled the behaviour I expect as a minister that is in charge of setting a standard and culture in work places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

In the restaurant, rain is marking the windows. Lees-Galloway\u2019s words come a bit slower. \u201cJacinda asked me what I thought needed to happen. I said, \u2018got to let me go\u2019. I mean, she would have anyway, but I understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

He immediately decided not to contest the next election, calling time on 12 years in parliament. \u201cYou would\u2019ve had to have had a pretty insane ego to not see that that was the right course of action, not just for myself, but that was the right thing for the party,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, analysis of the affair ranged from condemnation \u2013 what a power imbalance, what terrible judgement for a workplace minister,\u00a0 what a shame to see another tawdry example of MPs behaving badly \u2013 to ambivalence \u2013 the relationship was consensual, the complaint had not come from the former staffer, and Lees-Galloway was a victim of a tense political climate. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Collins was clobbered with questions about how she\u2019d handled the episode. She denied playing dirty politics, and said the AM Show had asked her if she had ever received a complaint like the one Ardern received about Falloon and she wasn\u2019t about to obfuscate.<\/p>\n

What does Lees-Galloway make of how Collins handled the tip off now? He shrugs. \u201cAll\u2019s fair in love and war.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those green leather seats, that wood panelling \u2013 the debating chamber was such a formal, impersonal backdrop given what Lees-Galloway needed to say in his valedictory speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c2020 has been an extraordinary year for all of us. Can anyone really believe it is still only August and not in fact 2025? For my family and me, it hasn\u2019t just been about the incredible effort of responding to Covid-19. There was the near end of our marriage, the death of my father and now the end of my political career. We even had to put the dog down a few weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to apologise to his family, whose trauma he called \u201cexcruciating\u201d, and for the impact of his actions on \u201cso many others\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet, one of his overwhelming memories of that day is the feeling of relief. He says he was exhausted, burnt out, and pleased it was all over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The past few years had been intense. He was proud of work he\u2019d done on pay equity and migrant exploitation, but disaster after disaster had taken a toll. He was the immigration minister who shut the borders against Covid. He was ACC minister when the Christchurch mosques were attacked. He was workplace relations and safety minister when White Island erupted. He\u2019d only just survived bungling Czech convict Karel \u0160roubek\u2019s deportation case, and he still grimaces when he talks about holding the immigration portfolio in a coalition containing Winston Peters (\u201cIs my eye twitching?\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grief eventually rolled the relief. \u201cIt took me a little while to realise that I was grieving for what I\u2019d lost, not just the role, but, you know, my reputation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He went to therapy and spent a lot of time with his family. \u201cI had not grasped just how disconnected I had become from the people who were dearest to me\u00a0 \u2013 family, friends \u2013 and so re-establishing those relationships and rebuilding that understanding of how important they are has probably been the key to getting me to where I am now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through a period of deliberate introspection and deliberate reflection on what it was about me that led to the mistakes that I made\u2026 learning a lot more about my personality and a lot more about my psychology and what things I need to put in place to work with who I am. And so I think I understand myself a lot better, and I\u2019m alert to what the warning signals are that I need to be aware of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA big one has been being really, really alert to how I respond to stress and look, that\u2019s a big part of it. It\u2019s not an excuse, but it\u2019s part of it. We all have things about us that we need to be alert to and aware of and learn the signals and make sure that we channel that into a constructive response rather than a negative, damaging response.\u201d<\/p>\n

His bruises have faded, but he says his hunger to create change never did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Couldn\u2019t you make change elsewhere, I ask. The nurses union and the Aotearoa Food Rescue Alliance would both count as change-making, and would surely (surely!) offer a less brutal environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work in that advocacy space for long enough, you\u2019re reminded, actually, you need someone to set the rules to make doing the right thing as easy as possible\u2026 I\u2019ve got the skill set and the experience to do it. I get it \u2013 it\u2019s not for everyone. So for those of us who, for whatever reason, are mad enough to want to do it, I think it\u2019s the right thing to put our hands up and give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

He already feels like the past five-and-a-half years never happened, that he never left politics, but he also feels this time round it will be different. He feels different, he thinks the party can offer voters something different, and if Opportunity gets candidates into parliament, he thinks he can ensure they go in with a different, supportive culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ambition, optimism or wishful thinking?<\/p>\n

Lees-Galloway gets up to leave. He shakes my hand, looks at me. \u201cBe kind,\u201d he says and winks. He\u2019s joking but there\u2019s some weight in his gaze.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He went to therapy, grieved the career he torpedoed with an inappropriate relationship, and now former Labour minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[492,19114,112585,42,18657,43,135,159225,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-286052","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-comments-enabled","9":"tag-cover-story","10":"tag-election-2026","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-homepage-feature","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-the-opportunity-party","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}