Christopher Luxon speaks to Mike Hosking after Labour overtake Nats in latest poll

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is expected to address leadership questions after Chris Hipkins overtook him as preferred Prime Minister.
• The latest poll shows Labour at 34.1% and National at 33.6%, with Hipkins leading Luxon.
• Luxon said he was focused on the upcoming Infrastructure Investment Summit and his trip to India to boost foreign investment.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is expected to field questions about his leadership after a new poll revealed he has been overtaken by Labour’s Chris Hipkins as preferred Prime Minister for the first time since the election.

The latest Taxpayers Union-Curia poll shows Labour has overtaken National, and Chris Hipkins has pipped Luxon as the preferred Prime Minister. The poll, conducted from March 2-4, shows National is up 1.7 points to 33.6% but Labour has moved past it, up 2.8 points to 34.1%.

He is expected to discuss the results of the poll further with Mike Hosking at 7.35am.

When questioned about the poll yesterday, Luxon said it would bounce around a lot and he would rather focus on fixing the economy.

He said he doesn’t give it a lot of thought and is focused on the likes of the investment summit and his upcoming trip to India.

Luxon is preparing for the country’s first Infrastructure Investment Summit, where he hopes to entice international investors to put their money in New Zealand. He described the summit and the newly created agency Invest NZ as “using every tool in the box” to boost foreign investment and “kick our economy into high gear”.

Around 100 global investment leaders are expected to attend the Auckland conference, including representatives of some of the world’s largest banks and investment firms.

Luxon said yesterday the Government would open registrations of interest for the first stage of the Northern Expressway at this week’s infrastructure summit.

A proposed map of the Northern Expressway was also released yesterday highlighting the different stages.

The first stage of the project covers Warkworth to Te Hana, a 26km long four-lane expressway connected to the new Pūhoi to Warkworth expressway.

Luxon is also gearing up for his trip to India this weekend alongside a significant business and community delegation.

He says there has been a “meaningful” increase in meetings between the two countries.

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