The Opportunity Party is polling at 3.3% and its leader says membership is at an all-time high — but with the election approaching, Qiulae Wong tells Mava Moayyed she still has to convince voters their ballot won't be wasted.
Over a matcha latte in her favourite local café, Qiulae Wong plots a parliamentary upset.
"[We're trying to] make history," she said.
"I truly believe we are in the best position we've ever been in to do that."
The leader of the Opportunity Party is attempting something no new party has done under MMP: enter Parliament without a sitting MP on their list.
With Opportunity hitting 3.3% in the latest 1 News-Verian poll, Wong believes momentum is finally building.
The 39-year-old mother of two returned to New Zealand with her family in 2022 after a decade overseas.
She said her career as a consultant at firms like B-Lab and KPMG gave her a front row seat to how government policy shapes, and often stalls, corporate action. It’s what ultimately convinced her she could have a greater impact in the Beehive.
“I can’t spend my whole life in the private sector trying to push from the outside,” she said. “I have to try and change this from the inside.”
But getting ‘inside’ was the challenge.
For years, Opportunity has been haunted by the ‘wasted vote’ narrative; voters who like the policies, but who back out at the ballot box. Wong described it as the "number one hurdle" the party faces.
"For every person that I meet that says they voted for us, I probably meet three or four that say: 'I really loved you guys… but I chickened out and voted for someone else.'"
Wong believed growing frustration with what she calls political "whiplash" could finally work in the party's favour.
"Parties feel the need to take something and ram it overnight but that ends up with the other side pushing back just as hard and repealing legislation."
Watch the full interview with Qiulae Wong on TVNZ+
She said the result was instability that affects everyone from businesses to schools and public services.
"I believe that there are … New Zealanders… who look at that and go, 'this is a massive waste of time. We need someone who's actually got a better long-term plan for New Zealand'."
Wong came to politics from a career in private sector ethics and climate, but says watching the government hesitate on a low-emissions future convinced her change had to come from the inside.
Commentators continue to try and to pin a left or right label on a party, but Wong won't pick a side.
"I just genuinely don't think that that left right spectrum is an accurate depiction."
"[We're] starting from evidence … rather than starting with an ideology".
On coalition negotiations, she is equally careful to keep doors open in both directions — something critics say makes it hard to know which way the party would go.
Wong's response: that's the point. She said Opportunity would need to see progress on three areas in any coalition deal — unity, innovation, and nature — and draws a firm line at backsliding on the Zero Carbon Act.
"That is not the kind of future that we believe is best for New Zealand."
Watch the full interview with Qiulae Wong on TVNZ+
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