That story is currently listed on the Financial Times\u2019 top five most-read articles on its homepage.<\/p>\n
The Economist has also featured Wong, with the publication\u2019s Asia section posing the question \u201ca new kingmaker?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMeet the millennial centrist shaking up New Zealand\u2019s election,\u201d the headline reads.<\/p>\n
It describes Wong as the party\u2019s \u201cpolished 38-year-old leader\u201d, heading up a small party with \u201cbig ideas\u201d.<\/p>\n
The comparison with Ardern is notable given the international attention the former Prime Minister attracted during her rise to power and sustained throughout her premiership.<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the 2017 general election, then-Prime Minister Bill English famously used the term \u201cstardust\u201d to try and dismiss Ardern\u2019s rapid rise in popularity<\/a>.<\/p>\n During Ardern\u2019s tenure, the former Prime Minister\u2019s international media coverage also attracted criticism, with some arguing her performance on the global stage was at odds with effectiveness at home.<\/a><\/p>\n Wong has grown the Opportunity Party\u2019s support from under 2% when she took over the leadership in November last year, to now over the 5% threshold in a majority of recent polls<\/a>.<\/p>\n That polling also often has Opportunity as the kingmaker, meaning it could be in a position to decide the next Government if the results were replicated on election day.<\/p>\n The surge in support has come with increased attention and scrutiny in domestic media. <\/p>\n The Herald has delved into the party\u2019s policies and people<\/a>, as well as developing a calculator to show voters what its proposed tax changes could mean.<\/p>\n Further attention has been given to the party\u2019s governing board.<\/p>\n In August, concern arose over the board\u2019s power to veto a potential parliamentary caucus, following questioning of Wong by Jack Tame on TVNZ\u2019s Q+A.<\/p>\n That provision was subsequently removed by the party\u2019s members.<\/p>\n The Herald has also investigated the internal tensions and power battles<\/a> within the party between its 2023 election loss and reinvention this year, revealing claims of a toxic and tribal internal culture.<\/p>\n The party conceded the past couple of years had been a \u201cdifficult time\u201d, requiring some \u201crobust discussions\u201d and referenced an incident where a board member allegedly breached its code of conduct.<\/p>\n Wong has since said the party now has \u201ca really positive culture\u201d<\/a>, and has floated potentially reviewing what went on post-election.<\/p>\n New Zealand First leader Winston Peters recently criticised Wong as \u201cthe new media darling\u201d<\/a>, mocking the idea she had been anointed \u201ckingmaker\u201d in this election.<\/p>\n Wong responded by calling Peters\u2019 comments \u201csad\u201d.<\/p>\n Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWong has generated excitement not seen since the meteoric rise of Jacinda Ardern,\u201d Bloomberg wrote. The Financial Times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2246,95,13176,20133,22365,160177,6310,124,59518,24571,5903,1437,266,42,1019,13175,1073,43,1536,6452,4762,125569,93584,1435,1436,30947,40,38,41,39,102,93585],"class_list":["post-648903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2246","tag-and","tag-ardern","tag-attention","tag-attract","tag-attracted","tag-comparisons","tag-could","tag-coverage","tag-decide","tag-election","tag-global","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-international","tag-jacinda","tag-media","tag-news","tag-next","tag-opportunity","tag-party","tag-polling","tag-qiulae","tag-rapid","tag-rise","tag-suggests","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-with","tag-wong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648903","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=648903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong has seen a surge in support in the lead-up to the election, which has come with increased attention and scrutiny in the media. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n