{"id":453158,"date":"2026-05-30T20:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/453158\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T20:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:44:10","slug":"i-chickened-out-the-biggest-hurdle-facing-the-opportunity-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/453158\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I chickened out’: The biggest hurdle facing the Opportunity Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Opportunity Party is polling at 3.3% and its leader says membership is at an all-time high \u2014 but with the election approaching, Qiulae Wong tells Mava Moayyed she still has to convince voters their ballot won’t be wasted.<\/p>\n

Over a matcha latte in her favourite local caf\u00e9, Qiulae Wong plots a parliamentary upset. <\/p>\n

“[We’re trying to] make history,” she said. <\/p>\n

“I truly believe we are in the best position we’ve ever been in to do that.” <\/p>\n

The leader of the Opportunity Party<\/a> is attempting something no new party has done under MMP: enter Parliament without a sitting MP on their list. <\/p>\n

With Opportunity hitting 3.3% in the latest 1 News-Verian poll<\/a>, Wong believes momentum is finally building. <\/p>\n

The 39-year-old mother of two returned to New Zealand with her family in 2022 after a decade overseas. <\/p>\n

She said her career as a consultant at firms like B-Lab and KPMG gave her a front row seat to how government policy shapes, and often stalls, corporate action. It\u2019s what ultimately convinced her she could have a greater impact in the Beehive. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t spend my whole life in the private sector trying to push from the outside,\u201d she said. \u201cI have to try and change this from the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

But getting \u2018inside\u2019 is the challenge. <\/p>\n

For years, Opportunity has been haunted by the \u2018wasted vote\u2019 narrative; voters who like the policies, but who back out at the ballot box. Wong described it as the “number one hurdle” the party faces. <\/p>\n

“For every person that I meet that says they voted for us, I probably meet three or four that say: ‘I really loved you guys\u2026 but I chickened out and voted for someone else.'” <\/p>\n

Wong believed growing frustration with what she calls political “whiplash” could finally work in the party’s favour. <\/p>\n

“Parties feel the need to take something and ram it overnight but that ends up with the other side pushing back just as hard and repealing legislation.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview with Qiulae Wong on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Opportunity<\/p>\n

Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong spoke to 1News’ Mava Moayyed. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

She said the result was instability that affects everyone from businesses to schools and public services. <\/p>\n

“I believe that there are \u2026 New Zealanders\u2026 who look at that and go, ‘this is a massive waste of time. We need someone who’s actually got a better long-term plan for New Zealand’.”<\/p>\n

Commentators continue to try and to pin a left or right label on a party, but Wong won’t pick a side. <\/p>\n

“I just genuinely don’t think that that left right spectrum is an accurate depiction.” <\/p>\n

“[We’re] starting from evidence \u2026 rather than starting with an ideology”. <\/p>\n

On coalition negotiations, she is equally careful to keep doors open in both directions \u2014 something critics say makes it hard to know which way the party would go.<\/p>\n

Wong’s response: that’s the point. She said Opportunity would need to see progress on three areas in any coalition deal \u2014 unity, innovation, and nature \u2014 and draws a firm line at backsliding on the Zero Carbon Act.<\/p>\n

“That is not the kind of future that we believe is best for New Zealand.”<\/p>\n

Watch the full interview with Qiulae Wong on TVNZ+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Opportunity Party is polling at 3.3% and its leader says membership is at an all-time high \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,135,213],"class_list":["post-453158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453158","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=453158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}