National leads in new poll

National has pushed ahead of Labour in the latest opinion poll, with some voters saying they have been influenced by National's tax policy.

The 3 News TNS poll has National up four points to 41 per cent support.

This is two up on Labour, which dropped two percentage points to 39 per cent support.

New Zealand First and the Green Party are level-pegging on 6 per cent support. Act is on 1.4 per cent and United Future and the Maori Party are each recording 1.7 per cent.

The poll was conducted between August 25 and 30, after National released its tax cuts policy.

Asked if the release of the tax policy caused them to pick National, 24 per cent said yes. But it is possible some had already taken the policy into account because National's total vote did not rise by this much.

The pollsters also asked voters if they felt National's across-the-board tax cuts or Labour's targeted reductions for particular groups were best for the country.

Fifty-one per cent said National's cuts were best and 38 per cent thought Labour's reductions were.

Asked about the poll yesterday, National leader Don Brash said New Zealanders were "fed up with Labour's overtaxation".

Prime Minister Helen Clark told TV3 National had made a "small gain and I think they'll be disappointed they only had one really good policy".

- NZPA