KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has acknowledged Labour has "work to do" to win back support after a double poll hit that showed National extending a big lead.
A New Zealand Morgan poll published on Friday showed support for National up six points in the past fortnight to 51.5 per cent, with Labour's support down four to 32.5 per cent.
A Fairfax Media-Nielsen poll published on Saturday put National on 55 per cent support, with Labour trailing on 32 per cent.
Miss Clark today acknowledged the run of bad results showed Labour would have to work hard to claw back support.
She believed the poor ratings were due to a series of inconsequential, but "untidy" issues.
"I think those results are a bit extreme, but clearly we have work to do," she said on NewstalkZB.
"We have to keep governing, we have to work on being a government of substance, a government of vision, a government which has got the big ideas.
"In the end it may well be a race between the hare and the tortoise, but of course the tortoise won the race."
Miss Clark said the Government had "a tonne of ideas" which it would unveil this year.
She had not written off Labour's chances and did not think her leadership was shaky.
Media speculation about her leadership resurfaced at the weekend after the Fairfax poll showed her personal rating falling 9 points on three months ago to 29 per cent.
National leader John Key's rating was up 8 points to 44 per cent.
Miss Clark said her bad personal rating was linked to the party's performance.
"There is no way that I as prime minister can soar ahead. I'm very much connected to party ratings."
The only other party to cross the 5 per cent threshold in the polls was the Greens, which hit 8 per cent in the Morgan poll and 6 per cent in the Fairfax one.
The Fairfax poll, of 1088 people, was taken between February 13 and 19, had a margin of error of 3 per cent.
The Morgan poll of 835 people was taken between February 4 and 17. It did not state a margin of error.
The two poll results follow a TV One Colmar-Brunton poll a week ago that put National on 53 per cent support and Labour on 34 per cent - which Miss Clark said was "way out on one end".
- NZPA
