{"id":632565,"date":"2026-10-16T16:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632565\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T16:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:14:11","slug":"simeon-brown-rules-out-opportunity-after-christopher-luxon-appeared-to-rule-the-party-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632565\/","title":{"rendered":"Simeon Brown rules out Opportunity after Christopher Luxon appeared to rule the party in"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Brown said when asked if Opportunity was now in play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very clear as the National Party, we\u2019re not doing a deal with the Opportunity Party \u2026 we\u2019ve been very clear we\u2019ll work with Act and NZ First, we\u2019ve been very clear we\u2019re not going to work with the Opportunity Party, that\u2019s been our clear position that the Prime Minister has been saying.\u201d <\/p>\n

Brown said National was campaigning for a National Party vote and a vote for \u201canyone else\u201d puts that at risk.<\/p>\n

Brown claimed Luxon had been clear about the position, using the words \u201cclear\u201d or \u201cvery clear\u201d five times in the space of about 90 seconds as he sought to clarify Luxon\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Hosking disputed that Luxon had been clear, noting his remarks on the West Coast were not very clear.<\/p>\n

Luxon told the Greymouth meeting: \u201cThere\u2019s no value giving it [the party vote] to Act, there\u2019s no value giving it to New Zealand First, you\u2019re not helping me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make it work with whoever I have to in order to make sure we win and make it, take the show forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is a lot easier when you\u2019ve got a big, active party sitting around 20, 30 seats in that Cabinet to get that job done.\u201d <\/p>\n

Luxon vowed to support mining and work with \u201cwhoever\u201d he has to, to ensure a second term, while campaigning on the West Coast.<\/p>\n

Luxon, who has repeatedly ruled out working with the Opportunity Party<\/a>, told the gathering of National supporters in Greymouth on Thursday night he would work with \u201cwhoever I have to\u201d to ensure a second term.<\/p>\n

However, his office says the Prime Minister\u2019s comment was not a turnaround.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PM was referring to MPs from NZF and Act,\u201d Luxon\u2019s chief press secretary, Finn Stichbury, said on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

MP Paul Goldsmith this morning backed his National leader in ruling out working with TOP.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no\u201d, Goldsmith said when asked by Nadine Higgins on Ryan Bridge TODAY if Seymour was \u201cshowing you guys some sense\u201d in keeping the door open to the Opportunity Party rather than risk being in opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cTOP are to the left of the Greens. The Prime Minister has been very clear \u2026 a vote for TOP is a vote for the left,\u201d Goldsmith said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Brown said when asked if Opportunity was now in play. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,3378,6256,1738,37432,16426,4509,3468,31787,5903,42,78,13489,16427,3556,71084,43,5493,6452,3111,4762,53501,16134,46028,6122,29023,2215,1361,223,61,40,38,41,39,376,102],"class_list":["post-632565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-appeared","tag-brown","tag-campaign","tag-chair","tag-christopher","tag-cold","tag-deal","tag-doing","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-leader","tag-luxon","tag-national","tag-nationals","tag-news","tag-open","tag-opportunity","tag-out","tag-party","tag-poured","tag-remarks","tag-rule","tag-rules","tag-simeon","tag-suggested","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-water","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632565","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=632565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}