Opportunity Leader Qiulae Wong Doesn’t Believe Luxon Rule-Out

Giles
Dexter Political reporter

Opportunity
Party leader Qiulae Wong says she does not believe
Christopher Luxon has completely ruled out working with her
party, saying he would rather be in government than in
opposition.

Luxon has repeatedly said National would
not work with Opportunity, even if he needs its support to
form a government.

“I have been crystal clear with who
we could or couldn’t work with. I’ve laid that out from the
very beginning of the year. I’ve been clear about
Opportunity,” he said at TVNZ’s leaders’ debate on
Tuesday.

Luxon’s complaints have centred around
Opportunity’s universal basic income and land value tax
policies, neither of which made it into the party’s bottom
lines announced last week.

After the debate, Luxon
doubled down, saying they were still part of Opportunity’s
policy programme.

The bottom lines, such as a ten-year
health plan, and a ban on bottom trawling, are things
Opportunity is not willing to walk away from.

That is
not to say Opportunity will not continue to push for a
universal basic income or land value tax, with Wong
indicating the intensity which which she will advocate for
them will depend on Opportunity’s vote share.

With
universal basic income and land value tax not bottom lines,
RNZ asked Wong whether she believed Luxon would not pick up
the phone.

“No, I don’t believe him. Because he would
rather be in government than in opposition. I assume. I
can’t say that for him,” she said.

“There are many
things we could work with National on, I think the five
bottom lines are realistic for them to commit
to.”

Wong said it was a “shame” that Luxon was
sticking to his position, but accepted that was the “game”
that was being played.

Wong
was also surprised by the response to a Kea Kids News
interview, in which deputy leader Daniel Eb said he would
vote for National if he was not voting for
Opportunity.

“It demonstrates some of the really
corrosive nature of politics at the moment, that that caused
such an uproar amongst some groups of people. Of course
we’ve all voted across the political spectrum, particularly
in a party like Opportunity, where we are a party of people
that have historically been politically homeless,” she
said.

“To chastise people because of their previous
voting behaviour is really unfair, and I don’t think it’s
helpful rhetoric for politics in New
Zealand.”

Opportunity was on 4.8 percent threshold in
Thursday’s Taxpayers Union-Curia poll, meaning it is under
the 5 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament, and not
in a ‘kingmaker’ position.

But Wong noted it was still
an increase on the previous poll from that pollster, and
that other polls showed Opportunity in a better
position.

The party was on 5.5 percent in the RNZ-Reid
Research poll and 7 percent in the 1News-Verian poll, in the
kingmaker position in both polls.

“We’re really
encouraged that the general trend is up, and most polls have
us well clear of the 5 percent. But obviously, we take
nothing for granted and we’re out working hard to shore up
as many votes as possible” Wong
said.

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