Andrew Dickens: Why is Qiulae Wong polling so well when her policies are so radical?

So, if Qiulae Wong is generally considered to be the best thing in last night's debate how did she do it and how is her fringe party keeping popular enough to perhaps enter parliament?

Her greatest strength last night was acting like a normal person.

It struck me that she was the only person on our screen that was not a career politician.  

That includes the panel who were full of broadcasters who make their living talking about politics all the time.

Q is 38. She's had career background in sustainable business. She's been successful enough to buy a house. She's got kids. She is comfortable speaking her mind.  She's authentic.

Beside her were two politicians who have only really been politicians and an old warhorse who seems to have been there since the treaty was signed.

So, she appears like a normal person and that is attractive to 8 per cent of the population at the moment which gives her party the trump hand.

But make no mistake, Opportunities policies are the most radical in play right now.

The Citizens Income or UBI or Basic Income Guarantee or whatever you want to call it, combined with a Land Tax, are a pretty out there platform.

They are far more radical than anything the Greens have come up with. It makes a Capital Gains Tax seem moderate.

If TOP ever got their way New Zealand would go through a painful transformation.

But her trick has been that she appears to be prepared to compromise.  With seemingly everything. Unlike the radical Greens.  And she reacts with a common sense that is absent in her policies.

It's the Peter Dunne effect coming back.  So, is TOP the United Future of today? Destined to hold the balance of power and then fade away?