Fed Up With the Big Two: New Zealand Voters Give a New Party a Chance

New Zealand is heading toward an important election in November. For a long time, two parties — Labour and National — have taken turns running the country. But this year, a growing number of voters say they are tired of both parties. They are switching their support to a smaller, newer party called Opportunity.

Mattie Wall, 76, is one of those voters. She lives on the South Island and voted Labour for most of her life. Now she says she is angry with both major parties and wants real change. She believes Opportunity is the only party taking big problems like climate change and rising living costs seriously enough.

Opportunity is led by Qiulae Wong, a 38-year-old sustainability consultant from Auckland. She lived and worked in London for nearly ten years before returning to New Zealand in 2022. Wong describes her party as centrist, meaning it looks for answers that both left-leaning and right-leaning voters can support.

Recent polls show around 5–8% of voters plan to support Opportunity. Under New Zealand's MMP voting system, a party needs at least 5% of the vote to win seats in parliament. If Opportunity clears that mark, it could help decide which party gets to lead the next government.

Political scientist Richard Shaw says voters today are less loyal to a single party than past generations were. People are more willing to switch their votes based on current issues rather than family tradition or long-held habits. He says the deep loyalty — sometimes called tribalism — that once kept voters firmly in one camp has faded.

Some voters spoken to by the Guardian explained their reasons for switching. Gemma, 41, from Wellington, used to vote for the Greens. This year she is voting Opportunity because she is worried about how hard life has become for ordinary people. 'Things can't keep going in this direction,' she said.

Wong says her party would cooperate with either Labour or National after the election. She argues that New Zealand has been held back by governments that keep reversing each other's decisions on healthcare, education, and climate change. She wants more stable, long-lasting policies that both sides can agree on.

Not everyone is ready to try something new. Christine Hands, 77, has voted in every election since 1972 and says she will always pick one of the two main parties. She thinks Opportunity's ideas — like a land tax and weekly payments to every citizen — are too risky. Even so, she understands why people are frustrated, and she believes New Zealand will get through whatever comes next.