KEY POINTS:
Ollie Paterson is an unlikely Labour voter. Son of a farming family and from a National background, he's leaning towards Labour partly because of its emissions trading scheme.
He thinks there should be a "bit more focus on the environment".
Paterson, 24, is sales co-ordinator for a bungy jump company in Queenstown, a tourist resort that makes its living from New Zealand's clean, green image.
Tom Beatson, 25, who owns a snowboard and ski hire business in the town, is voting Green because not enough is being done to protect the ecosystem.
A handful of young voters like him say they are voting Green to protect the environment.
But there are surprisingly few such voters. Green support among voters under 30 in this survey who have made up their minds (10 per cent) is only marginally higher than in the survey as a whole (8 per cent).
Even in the full sample, only 27 of the 600 people interviewed mentioned global warming or other environmental issues when asked to rate the state of the country on "the things that matter most" - well behind the big issues of living costs, crime, hospital waiting lists and welfare.
But 12 people believe Labour's determination to make New Zealand the first country in the world to bring farming into a carbon trading scheme will be disastrous.
"The emissions trading scheme is a crock of shit," says Southland farmer Nick Hamilton, 29. "If [National] come into power they might be able to do something effective in stopping that."
New Plymouth engineer Adam Kingsnorth, 27, says the scheme is a huge risk for the economy.
"Could this really kill New Zealand's lifestyle? Yes it could," he says. "If they whack something on top of petrol, no one is going to go anywhere."
