Parties on the right have the advantage ahead of the general election in October, according to the latest poll. Photos / NZME
Parties on the right have the advantage ahead of the general election in October, according to the latest poll. Photos / NZME
National and Act remain in position to form a Government in the latest political poll.
Meanwhile, National leader Christopher Luxon’s net favourability is still negative, and well behind Prime Minister Chris Hipkins - but is rising while Hipkins’ falls.
The June Taxpayers’ Union/Curia Poll found National almost unchanged on the last poll a month ago, with 35.7 per cent of respondents saying they planned to tick blue at this year’s election (up 0.1 per cent), while Labour dropped 0.9 per cent to 32.9 per cent.
Act is unchanged on 12.7 per cent but the Greens are up almost three points to 9.7 per cent. Te Pāti Māori fell 0.2 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
The results show National and Act could form a Government, with National’s 46 seats and Act’s 16 - both unchanged from last month - giving them the numbers to form a 62-seat majority Government on the right.
Parliament’s left-wing parties would only have a combined total of 58 seats - with 42 for Labour (down two on last month’s poll), 12 for the Greens (up 3) and four for Te Pāti Māori (down 1).
The Green Party - pictured are co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson - would have 12 seats in Parliament based on the poll. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There are 120 seats in Parliament.
Of the parties outside Parliament, most saw their numbers drop in the latest poll - with NZ First taking the biggest tumble, down 1 per cent to 1.6.
The New Conservatives fell 0.3 per cent to 1.3 per cent and Top 0.9 to 0.8 per cent. Democracy NZ, formed by National’s former Northland MP Matt King, is up 0.6 to 0.9 per cent.
However, while his party’s fortunes have nudged ahead of Labour, Luxon remains well behind rival Hipkins in net favourability.
Net favourability is a measure of the number of people who have a favourable view of a politician minus those who have an unfavourable view.
A positive score means more people have a favourable view of someone than unfavourable, while a negative rating means the reverse.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to have a higher favourability score with voters than National leader Christopher Luxon, but the gap has narrowed. File photo / Mark Mitchell
The poll showed Hipkins remained in front of Luxon - but the numbers for New Zealand’s Prime Minister of almost five months are falling.
Hipkins dropped three points to a net favourability of +19 per cent in the poll.
Luxon gained five points, but still has a negative net favourability rating of -2 per cent.
Seymour is on -4 per cent (up seven points). Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have net favourability ratings of -26 per cent and -27 per cent, respectively with decided voters.
Christopher Luxon at a public meeting in Birkenhead, Auckland last month. His favourability score with undecided voters is just one point lower than Chris Hipkins. Photo / Alex Burton
However, among undecided voters, Hipkins and Luxon were almost tied in net favourability, with Hipkins down 36 points to -6 per cent and Luxon up 19 points to -7 per cent.
Seymour has the highest net favourability among undecided voters of politicians included in the poll, at +5 per cent.
Cost of living is still our biggest worry, according to the poll. Photo / 123rf
The cost of living remained the most important issue for voters, at 33 per cent (up five points), followed by the economy more generally on 9 per cent (down six points), the poll found.
The environment was up three to 8 per cent, health down one to 7 per cent, poverty up four to 6 per cent, law and order up two to 5 per cent and policies, housing, taxes and education all on 3 per cent.
None of those who took part in the poll considered Covid-19 the most important issue.
The poll took place between Wednesday last week and Tuesday this week - the day Hipkins suspended his transport minister Michael Wood from the portfolio after Wood failed to declare he had shares in Auckland Airport.
A thousand eligible voters were contacted, 700 by landline or mobile phones and 300 from an online panel. The error of margin is +/- 3.1 per cent.
