Former prime minister Sir John Key has played down National Party leader Simon Bridges' low rating as preferred prime minister ahead of his first conference as leader.
Sir John will attend the conference in Auckland, this weekend - his first since he quit as leader and prime minister in December 2016 - saying he wanted to show support for Mr Bridges, who has poor poll ratings.
The conference is something of a test for Mr Bridges to prove to the party's wider membership that he is up to the job, after a decade of the party being dominated by the trio of Sir John, Sir William English and Steven Joyce.
It will be the first chance for the members to see the new leadership team in action and judge whether they have a chance of leading National back into government in 2020.
Although National's party polling has held up around 45% and 46%, Mr Bridges is still polling low numbers as preferred prime minister, especially compared with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Sir John's rankings were comparatively high from the moment he took over in 2006 and peaked about 70% in some polls when he was prime minister, but he said it was primarily a name recognition thing.
"Of course there will always be a focus on his personal numbers, but preferred prime minister is, in many respects, a name recognition issue. The incumbency gives you an enormous amount of benefit in that regard.
"Personally, I don't have any concerns at all about Simon's current personal numbers.
"I think the party numbers are ultimately what really matters and the other numbers will naturally track up over time.''
He said Mr Bridges was "growing'' but it was harder to get profile in a non-election year, up against a new, young and popular prime minister.
However, he said the party numbers remained high and Mr Bridges' numbers would grow.
"It's a very difficult thing to maintain those numbers and what it shows ... is that the 44% of New Zealanders have not wavered one iota since the last election. It is a tremendous effort to have held numbers at these levels.''
Sir John said the job facing Mr Bridges of toppling a government after one term was a daunting one and had happened only twice in New Zealand
Sir John has kept a low-profile politically since stepping down, but said he was available to offer counsel and support.
He said the party's supporters would be looking for signals on policies that were consistent with what the party's base believed in.
He said those voters were fundamentally economically driven, as well as focused on core issues such as law and order, health and education.
The best chance for an uplift for National was if there was a downturn in the economy, he said.
At the moment, the fundamentals of the economy remained similar to when National was in government.
"But if you see a real deterioration in the real economy - not just business confidence, but in what people feel and see - then I think you could get some very serious questions asked about the Government.''
Those charged with capitalising on that will be finance spokeswoman Amy Adams and Mr Bridges.
Ms Adams will deliver her speech today, and is planning to focus on the impact National believes the Labour-New Zealand First Government is having on the economy.
She is expected to point to changes in GDP growth, and has calculated that every percentage point drop in GDP growth equates to up to $800 million less in tax a year.
Mr Bridges will deliver a keynote speech tomorrow and is promising change, but not too much.
Housing Minister Judith Collins will also speak and said she intended to focus on what reforms were needed to the Resource Management Act to boost housing and urban planning.
- By Claire Trevett
