Wong Questions Whether Luxon Has Fully Ruled Out Opportunity

Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong says National leader Christopher Luxon has not completely ruled out working with her party.

She told RNZ Luxon would rather be in government than in opposition. She was responding to Luxon's repeated statements that National would not work with Opportunity, even if it needs its support to form a government.

At TVNZ's leaders' debate on Tuesday, Luxon said he had laid out since the start of the year who National could or could not work with, including Opportunity. His position has been consistent. In July, Luxon said he could not work with the Opportunity Party because it backs a land tax.

Wong said Luxon had focused on the land tax when ruling out her party. She told the New Zealand Herald that agreeing to no progress on tax reform in the next term would be worth considering. National has promised no new taxes if re-elected on November 7. Luxon and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis confirmed that promise in August. Wong also said Luxon will call after the election, according to the Otago Daily Times.

Opportunity left its universal basic income and land value tax policies out of the bottom lines it announced last week. Those bottom lines include a ten-year health plan and a ban on bottom trawling. Under MMP, the voting system used in New Zealand, bottom lines are the conditions for backing another party in government, through a coalition or a confidence and supply deal. Policies outside them can be negotiated. Opportunity deputy leader Daniel Eb said in a Kea Kids News interview he would vote for National if he was not voting for Opportunity.

Polling puts Opportunity around the 5 percent threshold, the party vote share needed to enter Parliament without winning an electorate seat. It was at 4.8 percent in Thursday's Taxpayers Union-Curia poll. It was at 5.5 percent in the RNZ-Reid Research poll and 7 percent in the 1News-Verian poll.

National is campaigning against what it describes as a Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori-Opportunity Party coalition. It has claimed there would be nine new taxes and counting under that grouping. It has also claimed Labour's promises left an $18.8 billion shortfall, or about $2263 extra tax per household.

Wong said National ruling out the Opportunity Party had not necessarily driven its lift in polling. She said this in August, when the party was presenting itself as a stable coalition partner.

The broader context here is familiar from past government formation. Leaders rule parties in or out before polling day to give voters clarity, and keep room to move after the count. Wong is testing whether Luxon's rule-out is firm or tactical. Luxon is holding a clear pre-election line while keeping his tax message intact. With Opportunity polling close to the threshold, the question is whether its vote holds and whether either large bloc needs it. A stated willingness to put tax reform aside for a term lowers one barrier with National. It does not remove the political cost Luxon would face if he reversed a public rule-out.