Labour support static as National's keep rising

Labour leader David Shearer. Photo / Natalie Slade

The Labour Party was hit with yet another disheartening poll showing its support was barely moving - bad news as David Shearer enters his fifth month as leader and the party prepares to unveil a suite of changes to try to change its fortunes.

The 3 News Reid Research poll had Labour's support on 29.4 per cent - unchanged since the last poll, while National had gone up about two points to 49.8 per cent.

Mr Shearer's support as favoured Prime Minister was also unchanged on 10.4 to Prime Minister John Key's 44.2 per cent.

Although about one third believed Mr Shearer was performing well, those who believed he was performing poorly had risen by 8 points to 26.2 per cent

Despite the lack of movement at a time when the Government was under pressure on many issues, Mr Shearer said he believed Labour was on the right track. There was often a time lag between support changing and the polls reflecting that change.

"So I'm confident the polls will start to change."

He had not set a timeframe within which he hoped that to happen, but laughed when asked how long he expected his MPs to wait before they got impatient.

"Getting Labour back to being match fit is a process and it's taking a while to make sure that happens. But we're already starting to get into our stride."

Labour will be hoping that soon to be released recommendations for an overhaul of the party will at least raise some interest in it again.

The party's national council met over the weekend and signed off on the recommendations from the working group leading the review, which was launched earlier in the year.

Caucus will consider the recommendations and party president Moira Coatsworth said they would be made public before being discussed at regional conferences in May.

A final report would be produced in June and the changes made at the annual conference in November.

NZ First was the other loser in the poll - dropping by 2.7 points to 2.3 per cent - and almost one third of their election night support. The Green Party was up slightly on 14.1 per cent, the Maori Party was on 1.6 per cent, Mana on 0.9 per cent and Act on 0.2 per cent.

POLL TALES

Party vote
* National: 49.8 per cent (up 2.3).
* Labour: 29.4 per cent (unchanged).

Preferred Prime Minister
* John Key:44.2 per cent (down 1.6).
* David Shearer: 10.4 per cent (up 0.3).

Performance

John Key
* Performing well: 59.9 (down 0.6).
* Performing poorly: 24 (down 2).

David Shearer
* Performing well: 32.5 per cent (down 2.6).
* Performing poorly: 26.2 (up 8).

* TV3 poll was of 1000 respondents and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.