Two major post-budget polls bad news for Labour

Prime Minister Helen Clark
Prime Minister Helen Clark
Post-budget polls on both major television channels today are bad news for Labour.

On May 22 the Labour government delivered tax cuts in its budget but that has not boosted its fortunes in the subsequent polls.

Labour plummeted 6 points to 29 percent support in The ONE News Colmar Brunton Poll, while National stayed steady with a 1 point increase to 55 percent. On those numbers National could govern with 70 seats compared to Labour's 37.

On TV3 Labour did a bit better on 35 percent -- but this was down 3 points on the last poll. National was up 2 points to 50 percent. That poll converted into an election would see National with 64 seats and Labour with 45.

In both polls National leader John Key was the preferred Prime Minister.

In the TV One poll he got a 1 point increase to 36 percent and on TV3 he rose 6 points to 35 percent.

Helen Clark was down a point to 28 percent on TV One and down 3 points to 29 on TV3.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was up 2 points to 6 percent in the TV One poll and he was steady on 6 percent on TV3.

In the TV One poll the Green Party, which held its party conference this weekend, was up 3 points to 7 percent, NZ First increased 2 points to 4 percent while the Maori and ACT parties were steady on 3 percent and 1 percent respectively.

TV3 had the Greens unchanged on 5.8 percent and NZ First fractionally improved to 3.9 percent, up from 3.4 percent. The Maori Party dropped 0.9 points to 2 percent. ACT doubled its support to 1 percent but United Future didn't make the cut on 0.2 percent support down from 0.3.

The One News Colmar Brunton Poll of 1000 eligible voters had a margin of error of 3.1 percent and was conducted between May 24 and 29.

The TV3 poll surveyed the same sample size. It started a day earlier.

TV3 also polled voters about tax cuts. It found 34.3 percent thought the level of personal tax cuts was about right; 45.6 percent thought they should have been bigger and 9.8 percent disagreed with cuts while 10.3 percent did not know.

Asked if National if elected would deliver bigger cuts 48.2 percent believed it would while 39.4 percent did not think so, 12.4 percent did not know.

Of those polled 61.2 percent did not think the budget including tax cuts would make any difference to them; 25.9 percent thought they would be somewhat better off and 4.1 percent said significantly better off. The poll found 5.3 percent thought they would be worse off, and 3.5 percent did not know.

Asked about whether voters approved of the budget and how it would effect them and the country 9.7 percent strongly approved, 34.7 percent said they somewhat approved, 23.4 percent had no feelings either way, 16.4 percent somewhat disapproved and 10.1 percent strongly disapproved, 5.7 percent did not have an opinion.