John MacDonald: Opportunity's time has come

Qiulae Wong’s night couldn’t have gone better last night.

Just before the Opportunity leader joined the other leaders for the minor parties TV debate, a new poll came out putting her party well and truly in the position of kingmaker.

According to the 1News-Verian poll, Opportunity is sitting on 8 percent - which equates to 10 MPs in Parliament.

And, not just that, the parties on the left and the right would need it to form a coalition government. A great start to the night for her.

But it was just the start. Because, an hour later, she lined up with the leaders of ACT, Te Pāti Māori, NZ First and the Greens. And, right from the get-go, she owned it. And Opportunity is pretty much on its way to Parliament.

Because, if people are happy to assume that ACT and NZ First will be there on the basis of their current polling, then the same for Opportunity.

In last night’s poll, ACT and NZ First were both on 10 percent. Opportunity was sneaking-up behind them on 8 percent.

A result that I think will seal-in those voters who might have been thinking about voting for Opportunity, but were a bit spooked that their vote might have been wasted if they didn’t reach the 5 percent mark.

That poll result and Qiulae Wong’s performance last night sealed the deal.

I thought she was a brilliant contrast to the Greens’ Chloe Swarbrick and demonstrated exactly why someone who might have previously voted for the Greens could or would vote for Opportunity.

Chloe declared that the Greens are out to change the Government because of the “massive attacks” it has inflicted on people over the past three years. The Opportunity leader said: “Imagine how many of those egregious things the Greens could have stopped if they were willing to work with National.”

Boom!

I thought she stood her ground brilliantly with Winston Peters, too.

Saying again that there’s no way she will serve in a government with him as Foreign Minister. Because of his racist comments to Chinese-born Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan.

My hunch is that, even though Christopher Luxon has ruled out working with them, Opportunity’s preference would be to form a government with National.

Because, if it went with Labour, that would confirm to the doubters that it’s a left-wing party and not as open-minded as it says it is.

And, let’s face it, on those poll numbers last night, we know that Christopher Luxon won’t be ruling out working with Opportunity come election night.

He, like the rest of us, needs to take Opportunity seriously. Because its time has come.

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