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Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says the decline in support shown in the latest poll is disappointing and he’s received the message from New Zealanders that the Government hasn’t been focused on the issues that matter.
“I know the last few months have been messy for the Government,” he told media in Lithuania.
“It is an indication that New Zealanders don’t feel like we’ve been focused on the issues that they want us to be focused on, and I think that’s a message that the whole of the Labour Party will hear.
“Any poll result like that is disappointing, but it is real, and I take it seriously.”
It was reported yesterday that Labour’s support had crashed to its lowest point in at least four years in the latest Talbot Mills corporate poll, tumbling five points to 31 percent, its lowest rating in that poll since at least 2019.
National rose one point to 36 percent, as did likely governing partner Act which is on 12 percent.
The Greens are up one point too, on 8 percent.
Commentary released with the poll said it was the first time National had been ahead of Labour by five points or more. It was also the first time the centre-right had been ahead of the centre-left by five points or more since the 2017 election.
Te Pāti Māori scored 4.2 percent, NZ First was on 4 percent, and TOP was on 2.9 percent.
The bad news did not stop there for Labour, with leader Hipkins tumbling six points to 32 percent in the Preferred Prime Minister poll.
A fall that large is bad news for Labour, but National leader Christopher Luxon was unable to capitalise on Hipkins’ malaise. His preferred prime minister polling was still 11 points behind Hipkins on 21 percent, down one point on the last poll.
Talbot Mills contacted 1036 people between June 28 and July 2. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percent. The poll is produced for Talbot Mills’ corporate clients. The company also conducts Labour’s internal poll.
The poll took place after a torrid month for Labour in which it lost one minister, Michael Wood, and weathered allegations about another, Kiri Allan, who is reported to have yelled at people in her office.
The commentary released with the poll said that “after a long period of very close results, we may now be seeing the long expected breakout of the centre-right. The next few polls will tell”.
“The centre-left had seemed to have been defying the political gravity of a generally negative mood; the acute political pressures stemming from cost of living rises and cascading ministerial scandals”.