‘There’s been so many occasions where Iain Lees-Galloway has told me no.’

There’s something lingering in the air around Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong. It’s not the bitter chill of Wellington’s winter winds out the back of The Welsh Dragon’s beer garden, but more a salt spray. There’s something rising off the shore, something which once looked like a trickle and now resembles more of a tidal wave of teal.

It’s taken years for Opportunity to break parliament’s levee, and now that they’re closer than ever, Wong is cautious about what happens when the floodgates open. After all, she has never been a “die-hard member” of the party – she’s a former businesswoman who ended up where she is after responding to a job ad she saw in an email.

It’s been buzzy to watch the party climb from 2% at the beginning of the year to 8% in the latest 1News/Verian poll, but for Wong, that’s a mixed blessing. Today, she’s not revelling in the Op-mentum, but worrying about what an onslaught of new attention brings for this once-fringe party. “It’s sort of like, shit, are we going to lose all of our support because of these crazy conspiracy theories coming for us right now?” Wong says. “That’s what’s kind of keeping me up at night.”

Since its founding in 2016 by businessman Gareth Morgan, who was much talked about for wanting to kill off all wandering cats, the party has treaded a long and oft-disappointing road. Always campaigning, never making the cut. It’s also been 15 years since a new party (Mana) entered parliament, and even then it was a case of a sitting MP breaking away, rather than a new party coming in from outside. All these factors should point to disappointment for the Opportunity hopefuls. But, then you zoom out and take stock of the wider picture: voters disgruntled at the stalled economy and uninspired by the large parties and open to seeing transformation on the table.

That’s the opening Opportunity is trying to seize. Wong reckons voters have become “disillusioned” by the status quo, and the “little treats” promised like “landlord tax cuts and free doctor’s visits” that she says fail to get to the roots of our problems. She worries there’s a lack of “cross-fertilisation of ideas” between the current parties in parliament, and wants Opportunity to step up to be the connector between silos. “We’re at a hard point in history, where there’s a transition to a different kind of economy because the old solutions just don’t cut it anymore,” Wong says. “The big parties in particular are just too tied to their old ideology to make it possible for fresh ideas to surface.”

That narrative seems to have ruffled the feathers of parties already in parliament (with National ruling out any kind of coalition agreement with the party), but Wong likes to wear the quips that come from her competitors as a “badge of honour”.

What about Wong’s origin story? She grew up in Auckland’s One Tree Hill as a “partly only child” with a brother and sister who are eight and 11 years older (“I’ve always been the peacemaker in my family”), but Wong was actually born in Fiji. Her grandparents emigrated there after the second world war and “built a life from nothing”, opening a supermarket, then a distribution business. Her grandfather served as the mayor of Lautoka, known as Fiji’s Sugar City, in the 1960s and later became the first Fijian senator of Chinese descent. “I think, coming from a half-Chinese family, you grow up with a sense of service and wanting to do something right by your whānau and community,” Wong says.

Wong admits she “probably wasn’t a good university student” and remembers skipping some of her classes. As a Gemini she has two sides (“there’s the reserved me, and the festival me”) and as a millennial, she loves a cafe avocado on toast, running to club remixes of 90s songs and watching Love Island UK in her downtime. “I’ve been trying to justify why I should dedicate any time to it when I should be reading briefing papers,” she jokes of her dating show addiction, which doubles as study in human psychology. Answer? There’s a lot one can learn about working in a coalition by watching the love triangles playing out in the villa.

When we spoke in late July, Wong had only recently come back to work following a family trip to Rotorua. It was her last opportunity to take a deep breath until election day. She knows her daughters, who are two and five, will be “extra clingy” when mum comes home after campaigning across the country full-time. It’s looking increasingly likely, though, that she’ll spend a large chunk of the next three years away from her babies, and that’s a sacrifice this introvert who needs space says she’s willing to make. “If I didn’t do this and just let politics play out, I would be far more worried about their future,” Wong says. “If the tribalism continues and certain parties get into power and enact certain policies, then I don’t know if I would want to live here.”

If Opportunity did make it into parliament, Wong says she’s most keen to spar with Act Party leader David Seymour. “I just feel like there’s many holes in the ideology, and that’s coming from a party who believes in free market mechanisms to solve problems,” Wong says. “It’s always quite entertaining to have that conversation with them.”

Wong says she would never describe herself as thick-skinned, and maybe that’s why she can’t help but see the risk every time Opportunity rises, but she does like to think she has the courage of her convictions, and that “if you’re doing something you really believe in, the attacks hurt less”. “I genuinely believe that what we’re proposing is the right thing for New Zealand long term,” she says.

THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A

How much should a pint cost?

I think it should be cheaper to go and have a beer at the pub than go and buy it at the supermarket, because then you’re encouraging people to get out of the house.

Do you have a karaoke go-to?

When I was in seventh form at school, we had a talent quest and my friends and I dressed up as the Backstreet Boys and sang ‘I Want it That Way’. At any birthday, wedding or graduation since, we’ve performed it.

Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?

Where we live, the local bowls clubs are really popular. We’ve got the Pt Chev Bowls Club and the Rocky Nook Bowls Club – they’re great for families, because the drinks are cheap (if you’re a member) and there’s a playground for the kids so you can let them play while you have a bowl of chips. I’ve tried to bowl for fun, but we mainly just go there for the cheap beers.

Which three candidates would be on your pub quiz team?

I’d pick Kayla [Kingdon-Bebb], who’s our Wellington Bays candidate – she’s got so many degrees, and a PhD. I’d probably pick Chris Bishop for the sports stuff. Then I’d probably need an older person; maybe I’d take Winnie [Peters] for history.

Which candidate from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?

Well, they’re all across the aisle from us. Barbara Edmonds from Labour seems like a good, positive sort. And from National, I feel like Paul Goldsmith would be quite entertaining. I’ve been on a few panels with him; he’s got a few quips and he’s sort of grumpy all the time.

Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?

Having excise tax on beverages that you buy in the supermarket, but keeping it low for drinking at hospitality venues and local craft breweries and distilleries.

What’s a policy area we’ve been nursing without finishing the glass?

I’d say competition; we’ve had so many market studies where we’ve seen supermarket prices and finance/banking would be so much cheaper if we made these changes. But we never quite have the guts to follow through on recommendations. I think giving the Commerce Commission stronger powers would mean they could finish the job on the market studies they do.

What qualities make a good drinking partner?

Spontaneity and having no inhibitions, which obviously the drinking helps with. My husband is a very good drinking partner; he would get beer anxiety if he was sitting here with us with the glasses getting empty. Although, sometimes it’s not good, because then he’s distracted and looking to order the next round. You never want an empty drink, so that makes a good partner.

Have you ever had a Schnapps election moment where you regretted your political instinct?

I feel like there’s been so many occasions where Iain [Lees-Galloway, Opportunity’s general manager] has told me “no”. As we’ve had more opinion pieces written about us, it’s been our instinct to respond. Initially, when they were quite positive, and then they became quite critical, and we wanted to share them all the time but Iain was like, no, don’t – let other people talk about it, you don’t need to. But it’s just because nobody has ever talked about us this much before, so it’s exciting.

Sometimes you’ve got to let the commentary run on its own. It’s hard when it’s a critical piece; there was one by Damien Grant that I responded to. Having that restraint is something I’ve had to learn.

Up next on One Candidate, One Pint: Michel Mulipola, Green Party candidate for Māngere. Read more One Candidate, One Pint interviews here.