Opportunity key to rebranded party’s mission

Wednesday, 10 December 2025

Many New Zealand voters have forgotten The Opportunity Party (TOP) existed, and that is fine with the relaunched Opportunity Party.

Its recently-elected leader Qiulae Wong was in Palmerston North last week breathing fresh life into the “radical centrist” party’s warm-up for next year’s election campaign.

The earlier version of the party was founded in 2016 by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan, and won 2.2% of the party vote in 2023.

After nine years in London trying to encourage fashion businesses in particular to work more sustainably, Wong is back in the country and seeking candidates for as many electorates as possible in 2026 with the goal of reaching 5% of the votes to claim seats in the next Parliament.

Wong said the party’s principles were about building sustainable and prosperous businesses, proving that profit and success could spring from looking after the environment and people.

“We believe businesses who look after resources and people will do well in future.”

She said the idea of a centrist party was radical given that polarisation of political views had become the norm.

She believed New Zealanders had grown weary of political parties blaming each other for whatever was wrong instead of working together to find solutions to pressing issues around the environment, infrastructure, energy security and economic growth.

“People are saying none of the parties are painting a picture for the future that I want to be part of.

“We want to focus on what brings us together.

“A lot of Kiwis are tired of pendulum politics.”

The party had some new approaches to income, wealth and democracy.

An important part of that would be changing the way society invested, freeing up the wealth that was locked in unproductive property.

It wanted to introduce a universal citizens’ income for everyone, that would abate for higher income earners, and increase revenue through a land tax - gradually so as not to penalise home owners who had only been doing what the system had encouraged so far.

It also wanted to engage New Zealanders in a process called citizens voice, where people with varying viewpoints would work together as an assembly to find consensus on important issues, such as how to fuel the economy to be more productive through the use of clean, affordable and abundant energy.

Wong visited The Factory, an incubator for entrepreneurial new business start-ups, while in Palmerston North.

She said innovation was a quality New Zealanders valued, even if they could not always describe exactly what it meant.

She said there were so many opportunities for Kiwi industries to be world leaders, which was why the party was putting “Opportunity” first and foremost in its name.