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The National Party's old private pollster has the party's support crashing to historic lows, while Act New Zealand is closing in on it.
A Curia poll, conducted for the Taxpayers' Union, has National on just 21.2 percent, with Act not far behind on 14.9 percent.
The result is only a whisker above National's worst-ever election result, 20.93 percent in 2002. It is the closest National and Act have ever been in the poll.
Labour is at 45.9 percent with the Greens on 9.6. Te Paati Māori is on 1.2 percent.
National's support has cratered in the poll. It was on about 30 percent in July.
Jacinda Ardern reigned supreme as preferred Prime Minister on 50.8 percent. National leader Judith Collins languishes at 4.4 percent, well behind Act's David Seymour on 9.3 percent.
National would lose four seats on those numbers, down to 29. Act would get 19.
Labour would have 58 seats, and the Greens 12. Te Paati Māori would keep both its current seats.
The poll was conducted from Sunday, September 5 to Thursday, September 9, with the median response on Tuesday September 7. The sample size was 1000 eligible New Zealand voters.
That period takes in a particularly difficult period for Collins' leadership. It includes the fallout from a difficult interview with TVNZ's Indira Stewart.
It was the second poll released on Wednesday - a leaked UMR poll, taken earlier in the lockdown painted a slightly less dire picture for National.
The UMR poll from August 31 to September 6 had Labour up two points to 45 percent, and National back down to 26 percent.
Act was holding steady on 13 percent, and the Green Party was down 1 on 6 percent. NZ First was at 4.1 percent.
In early August, Labour was at 43 percent in the same poll – its lowest result since February last year, before Covid-19 arrived.
There have recently been calls from within National for a change of leadership. Those calls could intensify on the back of this poll.