Minor players: How do they rate?

Minor party leader's debate. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has come out on top in a Herald-DigiPoll survey of Parliament's most valuable minor party players.

Act's Jamie Whyte is seen as offering the least to Parliament even before he gets there, while Mana Party leader Hone Harawira has been fingered by almost two-thirds of those surveyed as making the House worse off by his presence.

This week's survey asked 750 New Zealanders whether Parliament would be better or worse off with a series of minor party leaders and high-flyers as MPs.

Ranked according to their positive impact on Parliament, Mr Peters came in at No1 with 50.6 per cent of those polled thinking Parliament would be better off with him as a member.

He put that result down to his consistency.

"The fact is so much of what people are in this campaign talking about are not things they stand for really, it's dog whistle stuff and they come around at election time and they've got no record on it. We have got a consistent record for a long time on a whole lot of issues and I think people will respect that."

He also pointed to his record of holding governments to account. "It's not been easy but I do that and the fact is people want transparency."

Not far behind was Green Party co-leader Russel Norman at 45.2 per cent and Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell at 40.8 per cent.

Act's Dr Whyte came in at ninth and last place, with just 19 per cent saying Parliament would be better off with him there. However, a significant number of respondents - a combined 49.2 per cent - either thought he would make no difference or didn't know or refused to answer, suggesting they simply don't know much about him.

The former Cambridge University philosophy lecturer this week told the Herald he'd struggled to represent himself and connect with voters through the media.

"I think they expect me to be less human, less straightforward. They've got this idea of somebody who's rather remote," he said.

"Just the word philosopher I think conjures up a whole lot of stuff in people's minds."

Internet Mana's Hone Harawira and Laila Harre ranked low in terms of making Parliament better off.

Almost 62 per cent of those surveyed said Mr Harawira would make Parliament worse off, while 47 per cent thought it would suffer with Ms Harre there.