Chris Hipkins and Defence Minister Andrew Little make defense pre-budget announcement and reshuffle announcement after Meka Whaitiri exit.
Video / Mark Mitchell
The latest political poll has National nudging past Labour and able to form a government with the Act Party.
But National leader Christopher Luxon still does not appear to be resonating with voters, at his lowest favourability rating since becoming the leader in November 2021.
The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll was released today, revealing Labour had dropped just over three points in the past month to 33.8 per cent of the party vote, falling behind National which dropped by just under one point to 35.6 per cent.
The big winner was Act, bumping up 3.2 points to 12.7 per cent. The results would mean National at 46 seats and Act on 16 could form a government with 62 out of the 120 seats.
The Green Party was relatively stable at 7 per cent (up 0.3 points since April). Te Pāti Māori was on 3.7 per cent, up 0.8 points.
Those results for Parliament’s current left-wing parties would see Labour get 44 seats, the Green Party nine seats and Te Pāti Māori five seats.
Of the parties outside Parliament, NZ First was stable on 2.6 per cent, The Opportunities Party up 0.9 points to 1.7 per cent and New Conservatives on 1.6 per cent.
While the centre-right would be in a position to form a government, Prime Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins continues to prove far more popular than National’s Luxon.
There had been little change in the preferred Prime Minister numbers: Hipkins had held steady on 26 per cent while Luxon had nudged back up to 20 - up from 19 per cent. Act leader David Seymour had dropped to six per cent from nine percent and former PM Jacinda Ardern was still preferred by nine per cent.
Hipkins’ net favourability score was positive 22 per cent - six points lower than last month and down 11 points on his March peak of positive 33 per cent.
Luxon meanwhile was at negative 7 per cent, meaning more people gave him an unfavourable rating than favourable.
This was his lowest level since he became National Party leader in November 2021. Act Party leader David Seymour was on negative 11 per cent.
Among National voters, Hipkins had a slightly positive net favourability rating of 7 per cent while Luxon had a score of negative 56 per cent with Labour voters.
Taxpayers’ Union-Curia
Among undecided voters, Hipkins had a positive net favourability of 30 per cent, while Luxon was on negative 26 per cent.
The poll was conducted between May 2 and May 7 and included 1000 respondents.
