Labour leadership: Andrew Little's poll rating best since Helen Clark

Senior Political Correspondent·NZ Herald·

1 Feb, 2015 04:00 PM3 mins to read

Labour leader Andrew Little. Photo / Jason Oxenham.

But Labour leader still behind Key in poll that shows both major parties have lifted support

Labour leader Andrew Little heads into a two-day retreat with his caucus today, only mildly buoyed by the latest poll results and the shock success of Labor in Queensland at the weekend.

"The reality is that polls go up and down in the course of a political term," Mr Little told the Herald.

"We started from 25 per cent from the last election. We've got a big job ahead of us to turn that around and win back the confidence of people and it's a longer process than just one or two polls."

According to last night's 3News-Reid Research poll, 54 per cent of people think Mr Little is a capable leader, the highest rating for a Labour leader since Helen Clark was Prime Minister, although incumbent Prime Minister John Key is thought capable by 81 per cent.

The gulf isn't quite so wide on the question of leader performance. Asked how the leaders were performing, 45 per cent thought Mr Little was performing well - again the highest for a Labour leader since Helen Clark - and only 17 per cent thought he was performing poorly.

That compares with Mr Key's ratings: 63 per cent thought he was performing well and 24 per cent (higher than Mr Little) thought he was performing poorly.

In terms of party vote, the 3News poll recorded a lift in support for both major parties - National was up by 3.1 points and Labour by 3 points.

The first major poll after the election, the Herald-DigiPoll survey in December, also had both parties up - Labour by 3 points and National by 2.2.

Mr Little, a former union leader, won the leadership in November.

National has its first caucus meeting tomorrow at Premier House, the PM's official residence, in Wellington.

It will be one MP down after the resignation of Northland's Mike Sabin on Friday to address what he called personal issues.

Mr Little's caucus of 32 will meet in Martinborough in the Wairarapa for two days to talk about how to lift their performance and improve the party's overall impact.

"That's not going to change overnight. It's not going to change over a Christmas break. It's ongoing work," Mr Little said.

The first of three commissioned reviews has been completed since the party's low polling in September: the one that assesses the election campaign itself.

Two more are due: an analysis of the party's past four election results (2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014) and a strategic review drawing on the results of the first two.

Last night, Mr Little issued a message of congratulations to Labor in Queensland which has gone from having nine seats to 43 and is close to gaining the two others needed to govern with a majority.

But again, he was cautious about drawing any comparisons on what might be possible in New Zealand.

"It's nice to see a state branch of the Labor Party doing very well but these things have their own peculiar circumstances," he said.

"You had an increasingly unpopular Premier embarking on an increasingly unpopular programme of state asset sales, amongst other things, and an ALP state branch that got its act together and campaigned very well."