Christopher Luxon’s ruling out doing business with the Opportunities Party over its land tax policy may be handing the party the very attention it needs, says Cameron Bagrie, lead economist at Bagrie Economics.

“Just have a look at the media coverage they’ve gotten in the last week,” he says, drawing a parallel with Winston Peters’ rise from 3% in 2023.

Bagrie says the land tax idea is ‘nuts’, but the party’s competition policy captures a link the major parties have missed.

“We’ve got a cost-of-living crisis, but that’s masquerading as what’s called the income crisis.”

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