Qiulae Wong: The Opportunities Party leader on the party's new direction

The Opportunities Party is renaming to Opportunity and revealing a new leader in a relaunch for the 2026 election. 

Businesswoman Qiulae Wong is taking the helm after previously working for consulting firm KPMG - and before that fashion start-ups in London. 

Wong is the fifth TOP leader, but hopes to be the first to enter Parliament. 

"I thought this would be a really good opportunity, excuse the pun, to give it a crack."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
The Opportunity Party has unveiled a new leader. Her name
is qu Lay Wong. She's a sustainability focused consultant with
a business background, and the party has gone through a
bit of a rebrand as well. But Qulai joins us
on the line. Now, very good afternoon to you.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good afternoon, thanks for having me.

Speaker 4 (00:33):
Now, you I've got to ask you, what's the current
Opportunity Party's position on cats?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Ah? I think you know that was actually nine years ago.
I think we all just need to let it go.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Yeah, yeah, So so what is it?

Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's old news as it doesn't really matter anymore, does
not veature in our policy platform. There's a lot of
good stuff out there for people to dig into.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
Okay, So what's your okay?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
All right, all right, ambivalent?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
I just I just so you're not going to answer
that question.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, I've got a cat door in my kitchen. Does
that give you the information you need?

Speaker 4 (01:09):
Okay? Hey, so your job was originally on Seek, wasn't it.
They put the job out on seek? How did you
get the job? Was it through seek or did you
seek it out?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
I was actually on the newsletter mailing list. I wasn't
a member, but was, you know, watching the party and
keeping up with what they're doing. So I found out
about it that way and reached out pretty much straight
away to learn a bit more. Being a politician wasn't
always on my radar, but I definitely had come across

(01:41):
the need for more structural change in my professional career
and I thought this would be a really good opportunity.
Excuse the pun to give it a crack.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
So you hadn't been a fan of the Opportunities Party
before the opportunity came up to be part of the
Opportunity Party, if you see what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I definitely followed them and I have voted for them previously. Okay,
I think like I think, like lots of Kiwi's, I
kind of observed politics a little bit from afar. It
doesn't always look like the most appealing industry to get into,
but I felt like this was really the time for
me personally, and it feels like New Zealand really needs

(02:22):
something like this as well.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
As being the boss of the Opportunities Party. Is it
a paid gig and if so, who's funding your party?

Speaker 3 (02:30):
So yeah, I'm really fortunate that this role is paid.
So we've got donations from members and yeah, I'm really
grateful because I don't think I would be able to
take twelve months out of work to do something like this.
So super grateful for that opportunity.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
And so the big policy pitch that you're put forward
so far, it's around tax. Right, So you've talked about
this idea of the citizens income which will be paid
for via a land value tax. Is that right?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, yep, So it's part of a package with the
land value tax and the flat tax rate.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
And so how does the citizen's income work? Walk us
through that? How does it different from a universal basic income?

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, so it's similar, and that almost all adults get
paid an amount each week. It's a little bit different
from a universal basic income, and that we will have
a tapering off for really high income earners so they
won't receive it and that gets paid regardless, so no
more having to kind of fill informs all the kind

(03:33):
of bureaucracy and paperwork that goes with that. We believe
that the simplicity of a kind of broad citizens income
will remove a lot of that administration burden so that
we can actually put tax dollar tax dollars to good use.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
And what's the motivation for this citizen's payment, What is
it solving, What are the problems that it solves.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, so it really provides stability and security for all
New Zealanders. I mean, if you think about the one
hundreds thousands of people that have lost jobs in the
last couple of years, pretty much everyone I talk to
has been through some kind of redundancy process. There's nothing
really at the moment unless you know they've been able
to save and have a kind of rainy day fund,

(04:19):
something like a citizen's income. Make sure that we can
support those people through tough times that they don't have
to take just any job that comes along. They could
go and do some upskilling and maybe land another dream job.
If you also think about people who you know, we've
got a lot of amazing entrepreneurs and innovators in this country.
It gives them a little bit more breathing space and

(04:42):
time to maybe turn that idea into a business as well.
So I think there's a lot of great benefits for
different pockets of society, which is exciting.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, you say that it could be a motivation for people,
But isn't the biggest complaint people or criticism people have
of the idea of universal basic incomes is that it
takes motivation away from people. Won't eighteen year olds just
delay life while they sit on the UBI?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah, and look like we're a country of fairness. Kiwis
like feness and that is totally a value that is
important to us as a party as well. But I
think we also have to look at the current system.
I mean, the way that works is people are actually
disincentivized from looking for work. If you're receiving a benefit
and you go out and get some part time work,

(05:32):
the way our tax system works at the moment is
you could be taxed up to ninety percent on that work,
so you're maybe effectively taking home a few dollars an hour.
I think if I was an eighteen year old at
the moment, I wouldn't be very motivated to go out
to get a second job. I from taking home five
dollars an hour.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
Yeah, I guess, But I mean that's the time to
be poor, isn't it when you're young? And I get that,
But also I guess the question is then who pays
for it?

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah, so that's why this is part of a three
pronged tax reset. The land value tax that we're proposing
would offset the cost of the citizens income. And what's
I think interesting to note is the citizens income would
replace both the jobs that could benefit and superannuation. So
the challenges we're talking about, which are very topical as

(06:20):
a country right now, how are we going to pay
for the increase in cost of super? This is a
potential solution to that.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Right, So, reaching or breaching the five percent three shold.
I know you genuinely believe you can do that, but
that is an incredibly hard ass, right. I mean, there's
been multiple iterations of the Opportunities Party, it's now called
the Opportunity Party, but the best it's ever done is
two point seven percent. So realistically, how do you think
your chances are going to go to breach that five percent?

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not kidding myself. I know that
this is you know, it's a hard ask, It's a
very big mountain to climb, but it definitely for me anyway,
feels like the time has never been clearer that we
need a party that is offering something new, I can't
see the inspiring visions coming out of the current political landscape.

(07:11):
So we're really backing the fact that we've got an
aspiring vision that we are making this campaign all about
connecting with kiwis and helping them, you know, understand what
this means for their everyday lives. And we'll you know,
we'll have some awesome candidates throughout the country representing our message.
I'm hoping that maybe me stepping into this role inspires

(07:34):
other people that have not thought about politics to maybe
get involved. And yeah, I mean, it's only one hundred
and fifty thousand votes, not that much.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
So would you put money on your making it and
would you drop a cool hundred or a cool thousand
on you making it to the five percent threshold?

Speaker 3 (07:53):
I'm backing one hundred percent, all.

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Right, so a thousand is yeah, I mean, okay, all right,
But no word on the cats.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
I mean, I'm definitely you know, I've sacrificed a few things.
I will be sacrificing a few things over the next
twelve months to do this work. But I wouldn't do
it if I didn't truly believe and if I didn't
think it was worth it.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, well a q Lee, all the very best to
you going forward. I'm sure we'll be chatting to here
a bit more as the election approaches, but all the very.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Best, awesome, thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
That is Qla Wong, the new leader of the Opportunity Party.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
She's she's already quite a good politician because she wouldn't
answer the cat's question. Yeah that's the first question.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, your name. It was an easy one.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
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