National Party ministers are dismissing last night’s TV poll that showed declining support for the coalition Government - with Finance Minister Nicola Willis describing the reaction to the poll as “fruitcake business”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has also added to his comments this morning, saying he understood why the public might feel negative about the Government amid challenging economic conditions and a policy agenda that’s led to widespread public service job losses and stronger consequences for beneficiaries and social housing tenants.
It had National at 36 per cent, down two points from the last poll in February. Labour jumped to 30 per cent, up two, and the Green Party also increased by two to 14 per cent. Te Pāti Māori was on 4 per cent, the same as the last poll.
Based on those numbers, the left bloc would be able to form a government and NZ First would be out of Parliament without an electorate seat.
National minister Chris Bishop, also the party’s campaign chairman for the last election, thought people were getting a “bit excited” about the poll result.
“It’s basically very similar to the election result, we were down a bit, Labour’s up a bit, New Zealand First is down a bit but actually if they were on 6 [per cent], the result would be completely different.
“I think people are getting a bit worked up about nothing, frankly.”
National’s Simeon Brown, the Transport Minister, said the Government had made some “tough decisions” but it was focused on what the public had asked it to achieve.
Brown also noted it was more than two years until the next election.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis thought the reaction to the poll was 'fruitcake business'. Photo / Mark Mitchell
This was something Willis repeatedly referenced during her dismissal of questions about the Government’s fortunes in the poll.
She claimed journalists were “focused on the past three weeks” while the Government was looking ahead to the coming years.
Willis described the nature of questions she faced as “short-term, poll-driven, fruitcake business”.
“I’m just not going to be drawn into this silliness.”
Luxon, speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, laughed off some reporting of the poll results, calling it “a little frothy and sensationalist”.
”I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about polls... They can say what they want to, the bottom line is we know we’re here to do a job.”
Luxon later argued there was an explanation for why some of the public sentiment towards the Government was negative.
“It’s not positive at the moment because we’re having to make some pretty tough decisions.
“It’s not easy when you’ve got people losing their jobs in the public service, it’s not easy to actually put sanctions on beneficiaries not holding their obligations on Jobseeker benefit, it’s not easy to evict unruly tenants out of Kāinga Ora.
“I get all of that, right... I’m sorry, but I’m not going to get bounced around by polls of which there are many different types.”
He said he wasn’t worried the Government’s agenda was burning its political capital.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins was cautious to celebrate too vigorously at the poll indicating his party could return to power in 2026.
“I’m being very realistic about this poll, it is a snapshot in time and as I’ve said this morning repeatedly, there’s two and a half years to go and we have a lot of work to do.
“New Zealand has voted for change at the last election and the message for us from there is that we need to change as well.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
