Political polls: National Party leader Christopher Luxon hits back at Labour’s rise, says ‘nothing’s changed’

Opposition leader Christopher Luxon has hit back at Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ and the Labour party’s rising popularity in 1News Kantar Public poll, saying nothing has changed.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Breakfast this morning Luxon said Hipkins’ rating had bumped especially because the office of Prime Minister was behind him.

“Look they are going to bounce around, nothing’s changed, it’s the same government and a new leader who can’t deliver,” he told Newstalk ZB.

National still had more to do to make its case to New Zealanders, Luxon said.

“Give people confidence because the country needs a turnaround. We are making progress, we still have nine months to go to make our case for New Zealanders.”

Speaking about Labour’s delivery failures, Luxon said slow Covid vaccine rollout, MIQ lottery, low school attendance rates and RATS mix-ups were some examples.

“When you think about police staff and rollout to shops hit by ram raid. Nothing fundamentally has changed in the delivery.

“It is going to be an incredibly tight race. What New Zealanders are needing is a reduced cost of living, restored law and order, and a focus on education.

“For five and half years, the government has spent more money and hired more bureaucrats.”

The recent 1News Kantar Public poll showed new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had given Labour an early boost, rising by five points to 38 per cent and overtaking National.

Another poll from Newshub-Reid Research had also shown Hipkins’ popularity with the public growing, with Labour rising nearly six percentage points to 38 per cent and National dropping 4.1 points to 36.6 per cent.

In the 1News Kantar Public poll, Hipkins had also gone straight from zero to 23 per cent as preferred PM - while Jacinda Ardern plummeted immediately to just 5 per cent. Luxon had dropped slightly to 22 per cent as the preferred PM.

That puts National and Labour - and Hipkins and Luxon - at almost level pegging in the poll.

“While I am encouraged by the poll results, we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us,” Hipkins told 1News.

Labour was on 38 per cent – up five points since the end of last November - while National had dropped one to 37 per cent.

Act was on 10 per cent (down 1), the Green Party on 7 per cent (down 2) and NZ First had dropped back to 2 per cent (down 2). Te Pāti Māori was on 1 per cent.

The National Party/Act bloc would get 60 seats in Parliament and Labour and the Greens 58 seats, while the Māori Party would have two. That could result in a hung Parliament if Te Pāti Māori sided with Labour.