Christopher Luxon holds post-Cabinet press conference
Support for Christopher Luxon has fallen in the first poll since he took office, dropping three points in the preferred prime minister poll to 30 per cent, down from 33 per cent in November.
This is still relatively high for Luxon, who spent most of his nearly two years as opposition leader scoring between 20 and 29 per cent in the poll.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has risen four points to 22 per cent, up from 18 per cent last month, but still below the 27 per cent scored in October.
The big winners of the new parliamentary term are NZ First and Te Pāti Māori, which have both seen increased support.
NZ First has overtaken Act to be the second most popular party in the coalition, polling 8.1 per cent, up two points from 6 per cent in the November poll. Act has fallen 2 points to 6.2 per cent.
Te Pāti Māori polled 5 per cent, up 1.6 points from 3.4 per cent in November. The Greens have registered a big drop, falling three points to 10.8 per cent.
The major parties are fairly steady. National is down half a point to 36.5, and Labour is up half a point to 28.8 per cent.
Running the numbers through the Electoral Commission’s seat calculator would give National 46 seats, enough to govern with NZ First’s 10 seats and Act’s 8.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins as Parliament returned. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour would have 36 seats, the Greens 14 and Te Pāti Māori 6.
Luxon continues to struggle with favourability, a measure that looks at the number of people who positively favour someone, minus the number who negatively favour someone.
His favourability is -1 per cent, with 39 per cent of people favouring him and 40 per cent negatively favouring him. This compares with Hipkins, whose net favourability is +9 per cent, comprised of 42 per cent positive ratings and 33 per cent negative ratings.
The polling period was December 3-5. National had a tough first week in the job, rocked by images of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters taking swipes at the media.
Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
