National leader Christopher Luxon is ruling out working with the Opportunity Party, saying a vote for the party is a vote for Labour and the Greens.
In a post-Cabinet press conference on Monday, Luxon said; "when you want to spend more, tax more, borrow more - we ain't doing business with you."
He repeated National's stance on Tuesday, saying this had been discussed with the party's caucus and the board for several months.
Opportunity was a party that wants "extreme policy" on taxes, Luxon said.
"We're a party of low taxes. It's not a surprise we don't want to work with them ... It's not a surprise in the sense that we've talked about a vote for TOP is a vote for Labour and the Greens and Te Pāti Māori."
Part of Opportunity's platform is built on being able to be in the 'Kingmaker' position, saying it could work with both the left and right bloc.
Recently, Opportunity has increased its support in political opinion polling, nearing the 5% Parliamentary threshold line in the June 1News Verian Poll (4.6%), the July RNZ Reid Research (4.7%) and the post recent Talbot Mills Poll (4.7%). The July Taxpayer's Union-Curia Poll had the party sitting on 3.3%.
Asked if Opportunity were willing to drop its tax plan, if National would then be willing to work with them, Luxon said he had only seen three policies from TOP. "They want tax, tax, tax ... That's why they're going to be with Labour and the Greens."
Luxon previously said he had made it clear when he set the election date that National could work with ACT and NZ First, and they would not be working with Labour, the Greens or Te Pāti Māori.
'They are not a centrist party,' National's campaign chair says
On Tuesday, National Party campaign chairman Simeon Brown said his party had been "very clear" about not working with Opportunity.
"The Prime Minister has been saying for a long time that we're not going to work with parties which want to increase taxes on hardworking New Zealanders.
"To think that this party is some sort of neutral sit-in the middle type of party when sitting at the heart of their policy is a land tax, and then to make every single New Zealander a beneficiary, they sit very much to the left."
"They are not a centrist party," Brown said.
Even if Opportunity ruled out implementing a land tax and universal basic income, Brown said their other policies were "pretty radical".
"Like they want to lift the age of criminal responsibility to the age of 25. They are very weak when it comes to law and order. That is a radical policy, and that is not something the National Party supports."
Opportunity's 'smart on crime' policy states it wants to "raise the age of the youth court jurisdiction, in line with developmental science".
'If we draw a bright line, we will stick with it'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told reporters National's call to not work with Opportunity seemed "pretty rushed and haphazard" and he thought Luxon "got caught on the hoof and just made it up as he went along" during Monday's post-Cabinet press conference.
Asked if he thought Opportunity was more left wing or right wing, Hipkins said it was hard to tell what Opportunity's main priorities are.
"They've got some policies that sort of seem quite far left and they've got some policies that are sort of more far right ... We don't support the introduction of a land tax. We don't support the introduction of a wealth tax. We've been very clear on that. That position is not going to change after the election."
"What we're going to do before Parliament finishes for the election campaign is set out which parties we could and couldn't find common ground with after the election. But there's still a bit of water to flow under the bridge over the next period of time before the election formally begins," Hipkins said.
"It's an absolute reality that no party under MMP who hasn't already been represented in Parliament has crossed the 5% threshold, so there's always a first for everything, but it's still pretty unlikely they're going to achieve it."
Hipkins said he "absolutely" thought Luxon would contact Opportunity if they got over 5% and if it came to the crunch on election day.
When pressed about it himself, Hipkins said: "We'll set that out ourselves before Parliament's finished for the election campaign ... If we draw a bright line, we will stick with it."
'Old-fashioned tribalism'
Following Luxon's comments on Monday, Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong called Luxon's stance "old-fashioned tribalism that we have to get beyond."
"Kiwis expect our political parties to leave ideology at the door, and work constructively together to make progress on the big issues," Wong said.
"We are ready and willing to work with parties across the political spectrum. We will maintain that position, and we're here to talk whenever National is ready."
Additional reporting by Mandy Te
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