{"id":547169,"date":"2026-07-28T02:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547169\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T02:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:23:24","slug":"christopher-luxon-says-ruling-out-working-with-opportunity-party-not-a-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/547169\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon says ruling out working with Opportunity Party ‘not a surprise’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Luxon says nobody should be surprised by his call to rule out working with the Opportunity Party – despite the new position being revealed without notice at the very end of a media conference.<\/p>\n

In response to a question at his usual Monday briefing, Luxon said he could not work with Opportunity due to its advocacy for a land tax. He declined to give a direct yes-or-no answer, but his office later confirmed that amounted to a formal rule-out.<\/p>\n

Previously when asked, the National leader would say only that a vote for Opportunity looked “like a vote for Labour and the Greens” and that he had not “given them any thought”.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Luxon insisted the party’s position had been discussed among National’s caucus and board “for several months”.<\/p>\n

“Pretty obvious to us – and I know a big surprise to you, apparently – but you know, this is a party that wants extreme policy on taxes. We’re a party of low taxes. It’s not a surprise we don’t want to work with them.”<\/p>\n

Luxon also disputed Opportunity’s attempt to position itself as a kingmaker which could go with either the left or right.<\/p>\n

“They’re as centrist as I am an All Black, frankly,” he said.<\/p>\n

When reminded he was working with New Zealand First, which wanted to buy back BNZ, Luxon replied: “I ruled that policy out, it’s all good”.<\/p>\n

He then walked away from reporters, having taken questions for about three-and-half minutes.<\/p>\n

Opportunity Party leader Quilae Wong speaks to Guyon Espiner<\/p>\n

Midday Report<\/p>\n

Not a ‘Trojan horse’ – Wong<\/p>\n

In response, Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong told Midday Report she was certain Luxon would change his tune if the alternative was going into opposition.<\/p>\n

“If they need us, I’m sure they would rather have a chat with us than just give up altogether. When that day comes, we are still here and willing to chat and have a good-faith conversation.”<\/p>\n

Wong said both right- and left-wing supporters had been trying to paint Opportunity as a Trojan horse for the other side. She said in reality, Opportunity had a lot of common ground with both parties, noting it could work with National to grow the economy.<\/p>\n

“It would be great if we could put that ideology aside and not… just cast us off as the other team.”<\/p>\n

Wong said Opportunity would lay out its clear bottom lines closer to the election so voters knew its priorities in negotiations.<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to the 2023 election, Luxon called a special media conference<\/a> to formally rule out working with Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori, as they had “no philosophical alignment”.<\/p>\n

\"Labour<\/p>\n

Labour’s leader Chris Hipkins says Luxon got caught on the hoof and just made it up as he went along.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n

Speaking separately on Tuesday, Labour’s leader Chris Hipkins said anyone watching Luxon’s announcement would have described it as “rushed and haphazard” .<\/p>\n

“I think he got caught on the hoof and just made it up as he went along,” Hipkins said.<\/p>\n

“It’s clear that… a lot of scrambling went on in the hour or two after that to figure out exactly what their position on it was.”<\/p>\n

But other National MPs reiterated their leader’s talking points on the way into their Tuesday morning caucus meeting.<\/p>\n

National deputy Nicola Willis said Luxon’s position reflected “widely held views” across National and did not come as a surprise.<\/p>\n

“It’s good we have a prime minister that, when he’s asked a clear question gives a clear answer, which distinguishes him from Chris Hipkins, who refuses to be clear about who he would work with.”<\/p>\n

Hipkins has said he will lay out which parties Labour could work with before Parliament rises near the end of September.<\/p>\n

Campaign chair Simeon Brown said National had long been “very clear” that it would not work with parties with “radical left” policies.<\/p>\n

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

Erica Stanford said the announcement had come as no surprise given her discussions with other senior ministers.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Mark Papalii<\/p>\n

Chris Bishop said the rule-out was “nothing out of the ordinary” and suggested reporters were “jumping at shadows”.<\/p>\n

“It would be wrong to characterise it as some great big pronouncement. He was asked the question, he answered it.”<\/p>\n

Bishop added that he did not think Opportunity would make it over the 5 percent threshold: “Vibe-based political parties don’t go so well.”<\/p>\n

Erica Stanford said Luxon’s Monday announcement had come as no surprise given her discussions with other senior ministers.<\/p>\n

“I’m not surprised. The public aren’t surprised. No one should be surprised.”<\/p>\n

Three recent polls have put Opportunity near the 5 percent threshold. The latest Talbot Mills Anacta and RNZ Reid Research polls registered Opportunity at 4.7 percent, while 1News Verian had it at 4.6 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christopher Luxon says nobody should be surprised by his call to rule out working with the Opportunity Party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-547169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547169","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=547169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}