Qiulae Wong: Opportunity Party leader says they are drawing people in from 'across the political spectrum'

Opportunity Party, previously TOP, are coming in hot this election with a brand new leader Qiulae Wong. 

Wong joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss the party's campaign policies including universal basic income.

She says the Opportunity Party is appealing to dissatisfied Green, National, and Labour voters. 

"We are certainly seeing people from across the political spectrum coming to Opportunity."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's all about another political party. This is the Opportunity Well, actually,
forgive me, it's not called the Opportunity Party. It's not
called top anymore. It's just called Opportunity. They've announced a
suite of policies, including the Citizen's Income, which is basically
a policy in which they want to give nineteen four
hundred dollars to every adult in this country tax free.
The leader is qla one who goes by the name
q hi Q. Hello, okay, having me, you're more than

(00:23):
welcome to listen. What is your thoughts on the pension age?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
So what we would like to see the time is
a move towards means testing. We would prefer that over
raising the age, and we think we can get there
if we introduce a compulsory key we save it. Obviously,
it's hard for retirees today who haven't had that opportunity
to have that compulsory saving, so it takes some time
to get there. But the longer we wait, the longer
it's a longer it's going to take. And we already

(00:48):
know that it's going to be unaffordable in the next decade,
so we really need to make some calls on this.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
So do you, I mean, so then for that say
for that, do you then accept that there will be
there's urgency to start dealing with the pension age, But
there will be people who do not have sufficient key
we save it built up, so there will be a
generation or two of people who really suffer.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, our goal is not to start means testing until,
you know, until we do have a generation of kiwis
who can retire with compulsory savings. So we would introduce
the citizen's income and maintain superinnuation at the same level
as it is now, so nobody would reperceiving any less.
But say in ten twenty years time, when you do

(01:27):
have people that are retiring that have had that compulsory
savings opportunity, we could start means testing over sixty five's
at that point.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Okay, how are you going to pay for the citizen's income?
How much is it going to cost?

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So we have costed this out. The citizens income side
costs about twenty four billion, but we think we can
raise twenty eight billion in land value tax, so there's
annually annually, so that's a four billion a year surplus actually,
which could be used to pay down some debt or
pay for some of our other policies that we want
to see enacted.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
How long a second take, How long is it going
to take for you to hit the twenty eight billion
from the land tabs?

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, so this we've put out an implementation plan which
would be over ten years. It could be done faster,
but we've tried to be as pragmatic and fair as
possible to minimize any impact on property market prices, rent prices,
you know, other distortions in the market. Over ten years.
Potentially it could be done faster, but we've got a

(02:25):
balance there between making big bowl change and also being
fair to the people that have existed in this system
for decades.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Do you accept that you run the risk of turning
us even more than we already are into a country
of bloodgers if everybody just gets twenty grand for free
and consider on their bums.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
So I think there's multiple things here. Studies overseas have
of UBIS have shown that it doesn't actually increase unemployment.
It doesn't always increase employment, but what it does does
mean that people find jobs that are actually more meaningful
for them, or spend time more on training and upskilling.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
In which these studies been done There's.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Been them in Finland, Ireland, the US, India. Ireland has
recently made permanent a UBI for creatives and artists, recognizing
the role that they play in society.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Sorry, who is that?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Ireland? Oh yeah, yep, India has a UBI for women
recognizing the unpaid role that they play in our goodness. Certainly. Well, well,
you know, it's relative relative to the cost of living,
and even in New Zealand, you know, we're not proposing
enough really for anyone to live a comfortable life. Nineteen

(03:35):
thousand dollars a year won't cover everything you need. So
there's still an incentive there to get out and work
to build a life. And actually we think that by
giving people dignity and trusting them to make those decisions,
that sets them up for success much better than our
current system.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Okay, now, que it seems to me that that you're
because I've had this debate. I had a bunch of
people who are huge fans of the Opportunities Party trying
to convince me that you guys are going to get
into the election, and so I've spent a bit of
time thinking basically having this being brainwashed by these people.
It seems to me that your greatest chance of getting
in is actually with disaffected Labor and Green voters. Right

(04:10):
Labor Party voters who realize their party is useless and
actually doesn't have a back vote. Green Party voters who
realize their party is full of very weird people. Those
people may peel off and come to you. Is that
how you see it?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yes, And I think there are disaffected national voters who
really care about responsible economic management, but also really care
about the environment and are quite appalled at some of
the actions that have happened over the last couple of
years and under this government with regards to fisheries and
climate legislation. So we are certainly seeing people from across
the political spectrum coming to Opportunity.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Brilliant, it's good to talk to you. Thank you very much,
and good luck with a campaign. That's q Lawong. Who
is the Opportunity Leader or just I suppose Opportunity Leader.
I don't know. I don't know about this name. It's
very confusing. It's all if you don't know whether you
put a the in the front of something. It's just
an own goal, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
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