The polls are slowly turning on the Government but there’s only one poll that counts: Editorial

About 35,000 people gathered in Dunedin to protest cuts to the new hospital build. Photo / Ben Tomsett

EDITORIAL

Politicians will tell you – especially when their party is on the slide – there’s only one poll that counts and that’s the one on election night.

While that may be true, you can guarantee behind the scenes, political strategists and party hierarchy will be analysing every poll movement and percentage point rise and fall to see where their party lies in the political landscape and the public’s mood, and monitoring party missteps, muck-ups and meltdowns.

Last week’s Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll had National down 4.1 points to 34.9% from September while Labour is up 3.6 points to 30.3%. The Green Party was down 0.6 points to 10.4%, while Act was up to 9.7% (+0.9 points). New Zealand First was up 0.8 points to 7.6% and Te Pāti Māori was down 2 points to 3%.

But the Nats’ rating is not too bad considering the number of cuts this National-led coalition Government has made to the public service and Māori health initiatives. Add to that the huge amount of legislation – some well-liked and some not so well-liked – the Government has pushed through this Parliament at record pace.

If anyone deserves a pay rise, it’s the parliamentary clerks who prepare the mountains of paperwork that goes with each piece of legislation.

Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick is third in the preferred Prime Minister ratings, according to the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll.

Christopher Luxon also took a whack in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, dropping 5 points to 27.7%, with Labour leader Chris Hipkins on 16.9% (up 4.3 points), Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick at 9.9% (up 2.7 points), and NZ First’s Winston Peters on 8.4% (up 1.7 points).

On the back of the Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, a 1News Verian poll is painting more doom and gloom for the Government this week.

That poll said 30% of people think the country is in better shape than on election day a year ago, while 40% think it is in worse shape and 26% think little has changed.

The Verian poll of 1000 eligible voters was taken on October 5-9, after the massive 35,000-strong Dunedin crowd took to the streets to protest the Government’s backtrack on the new Dunedin Hospital build.

Health is a major concern for New Zealanders.

We are reading and hearing daily of people waiting at A&E departments for hours – and yesterday how the death of an elderly man, according to his family, was preventable .

With Health New Zealand haemorrhaging millions a month, the unpleasant A&E stories and the Dunedin Hospital cuts, health might prove to be a big turning point for this National, Act and NZ First Government.