Taking NZ's pulse

Today's Mood of the nation article, and others to follow next week, are based on 600 interviews, mainly with people in the streets, from Kaitaia to Bluff between July 17 and August 3.

Everyone was shown a card saying, "On the things that matter most, I'd rate the current state of New Zealand as: 7/ Excellent, 6/ Very good, 5/ Good, 4/Okay, 3/ Poor, 2/ Very poor, 1/ Awful." People were then asked to explain why they made their choice.

They were also shown the reverse of the card, listing all 22 parties registered for the party vote. They were asked to say which party they were thinking of supporting with their party vote, and why.

Three further questions were about tax, spending and welfare, which will be reported next week.

Interviews in Auckland (32 per cent), the rest of the North Island (44 per cent) and the South Island (24 per cent) reflected the populations in those broad regions. There were roughly equal numbers of men (51 per cent) and women (49 per cent).

Seventy-nine per cent were of European ethnicity (80 per cent in the population), 16 per cent Maori (15 per cent), 5 per cent Pacific Island (7 per cent) and 6 per cent Asian and other (7 per cent). These tallies count people of dual ethnicities twice.

However, young people under 30 were over-represented (27 per cent), with 41 per cent aged between 30 and 49, and 32 per cent aged 50 and over, against population figures of 22 per cent, 40 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.

Showing people all parties, and over-sampling young people, produced a much higher vote for minor parties (31 per cent) than in the Herald DigiPoll taken between July 20 and 27 (19 per cent).

Labour polled 37 per cent (44 per cent in the DigiPoll), National 32 per cent (38 per cent), New Zealand First 9 per cent (7 per cent), the Greens 8 per cent (3 per cent), the Maori Party 5 per cent (3 per cent) and Act 2 per cent (1 per cent).