Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong believes her party can find "common ground" with Winston Peters and New Zealand First if it were part of future coalition negotiations.
Wong's comments come after Opportunity saw a surge in yesterday's 1News Verian poll, rising to 8%.
The coalition of National (29%), Act (9%) and NZ First (8%) would hold 57 seats – not enough to retain power. The left bloc, consisting of Labour (30%), the Greens (12%) and Te Pāti Māori, who were assumed to retain their six Māori electorate seats, would also not have the numbers.
The party would comfortably make it into Parliament, and likely be kingmaker in deciding the next Government.
Opportunity has said it's willing to work with all parties, including National, despite Prime Minister Christopher Luxon appearing to rule them out over tax policy disagreements.
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has said there is "no way" his party would support Opportunity's tax policy, but will make a call on who he would be willing to work with closer to the election.
On Breakfast this morning, Wong said recent polls showed that "voters are not feeling inspired by either of the major big parties" and wanted "stability".
"We are focused on maximising our party vote," she said. "That gets us in the best position to be a strong and stable coalition partner to either Labour or National."
"I think that's what New Zealand needs right now, is some stability and some focus on moving forward."
Asked about Luxon's call to rule out working with Opportunity, Wong said: "I think nobody really believes they wouldn't pick up the phone if they didn't need to talk to us".
"We have made it very clear there are multiple things we think we can work with them on."
Yesterday's poll coincided with dramatic scenes at Parliament, where National MPs were summoned for an urgent meeting amid speculation about Luxon's leadership. Luxon survived a confidence vote and then sacked Cabinet minister Chris Penk for launching a challenge against him.
Asked if she felt less inclined to work with National following this, Wong said: "I don't think it's appropriate for me to comment on the leadership of any of the parties.
"We can't control the way that the National Party performs, how they act.
"The reality is that it's going to be either Labour or National... So we are going to have to find a way to work with them."
Winston Peters could be another sticking point in negotiations, with Opportunity saying it wouldn't work with any government that has the NZ First leader as Foreign Minister.
This was in response to comments Peters made in the House directed at Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan – telling the Chinese-born lawmaker to "go back to your own country". Wong has called the comments "racist".
She said that while NZ First is "probably the party that we have the least in common with", there was a possibility of finding common ground.
"There are some things that they've talked about around tackling supermarkets [and] our energy market that we have some good solutions on."
Qiulae Wong spoke to Q+A's Jack Tame about the Opportunity party. (Source: Q and A)
A "bottom line" that Opportunity won't accept was Peters as Foreign Minister, Wong said.
Pressed on whether this applied to any other portfolios, Wong said the call around Foreign Minister was a "specific example" off the back of Peters' comments in the House.
"I think we'd have to look at what the offer is on the table for a coalition agreement, and there may be circumstances where we won't be willing to work with those options as well.
"He might not be offered any ministerial position, so we, you know, we can't make that call until we see what the offer is.
"There's potential that he could be in a ministerial role. We're not ruling any of those other roles out at this stage."
Newcomer rises to 8% to bring it neck-and-neck with New Zealand First. (Source: 1News)
She said details around ministerial roles were not the party's main focus at the moment, wanting to avoid "tribal politics".
"I don't think it's useful to play this ruling in and out game in full detail."
Asked about David Seymour and ACT, Wong said there were "absolutely" things Opportunity disagreed with but also felt common ground could be found.
"We have to sit around the table and try to make things work. Because if we continue playing tribal politics, New Zealand will just go backwards."
Asked if Opportunity was more likely to side with the left bloc, Wong mentioned the Memorandum of Understanding between National and the Greens in 2009.
"That kind of cooperation seems absolutely far-fetched these days, and I think we need to remember that MMP is about parties coming together and working together across party lines, and that's what we're focused on.
"I think that's the shift we need to make in New Zealand politics."
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