Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says many people do feel that "things have got better" with the economy recovering, lower inflation and lower interest rates.
The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll, published on Monday, put National on 30.8% support, falling further behind Labour, which rose to 35.6%.
The survey also showed worsening sentiment, with half of respondents saying New Zealand was heading in the wrong direction, compared with a third who thought it was on the right track.
Luxon reiterated his policy of not commenting on polls, saying he was focused on navigating the current fuel supply challenges.
"People don't talk about polls," he said.
Asked whether the negative sentiment was reflected in his conversations with voters, Luxon said some people had seen "real benefit" and had more discretionary income since their mortgage rates had come down.
"Many are acknowledging the fact that things have got better with lower inflation, lower interest rates. They can see that there's some encouragement in manufacturing and exports and tourism. So depending upon what sort of business you're in, and which part of the country you're in, often it's very positive."
Luxon acknowledged the government still had "a lot more" to do to ensure more New Zealanders felt the economic recovery.
He said the New Zealanders he'd spoken to recently were most interested in the country's fuel supply and cost-of-living support of those in most need.
More details on cost-of-living support to come in the "next few weeks"
Luxon said the government was "very, very thoughtfully" exploring what targeted support it could offer to those most struggling with high fuel prices driven by the war in the Middle East.
He said people can expect those details within "the next few weeks".
"Everybody will have their individual, random ideas as to what they think we should be doing, but we need to do that in a coherent way... we've also got to be economically responsible. I want to be straight. We're not going to be able to alleviate all the pressure for everyone."
Luxon declined to offer any advice to New Zealanders around their fuel use, saying only the country had "healthy fuel stocks" right now and was preparing in case that was put at risk in future.
"We're encouraging families to make their own decisions about how best to navigate the pressure that they'll be feeling on their household budgets for themselves.
"We'll have a series of escalations. Should our future scenarios require us to adjust our settings, and that's what we deal with through our National Fuel Plan."
Just 17.3% of voters named Luxon as their preferred choice for prime minister, compared with 20.7% who picked Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Half of respondents - 50.4% - said Luxon was performing poorly as prime minister, compared with 29.8% who rated him well.
Peters on 'the real poll'
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters say he didn't take much notice of his party's 11%.
"The real poll that we're looking at is what happened in Tauranga yesterday with over a thousand people packing the place out and all the overflow rooms filled … as well.
"That's what we're watching for because we are having real public meetings with real people, unlike all the rest of the parties who can't have a public meeting."
Peters said there had been some good changes but more could have been done.
"Don't try and flannel people. We all know we could and should've done better."
He said it took him back to 2023 negotiations with the major parties saying what they could fix in three years.
But Peters said it showed they didn't understand the "dire" and "serious" economic situation as it couldn't be fixed in that time.
"Don't lie," he said, "please don't promise you can do all these things".
This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between 12-20 March 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
