National has surged 7 points to 39 percent to take the lead in the poll released tonight - the first since January.
Governing party Labour dropped 3 points to 37 percent. It is the first time National has been ahead of Labour since February 2020.
The Greens are steady on 9 percent, while Act has fallen 3 points to 8 percent.
Te Pāti Māori is on 2 percent. If it wins an electorate seat and enters Parliament it would be in a kingmaker position, as neither obvious governing blocs would have enough seats to win outright. The parties need a minimum of 61 seats to govern.
On those numbers, National would have 49 seats and Labour 47. The Greens would have 11 seats and Act 10.
The big question is whether Te Pāti Māori could hold on to Rawiri Waititi's electorate seat, Wairiki, giving it representation in Parliament. If so, it would have three seats and would be kingmaker.
National leader Christopher Luxon is also surging in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, up 8 points to 25 percent. Labour leader Jacinda Ardern is down just 1 point to 34 percent , while Act leader David Seymour is on 5 percent, down 1 point.
Prime Minister Ardern today appeared unconcerned by the poll result.
"My focus rather than being on polls is on people," she said.
Meanwhile, Waititi said he could not work with Act and would conduct a "beauty contest" when the time to form a government arose.
In the last 1 News-Kantar Poll, taken in January, National rose 4 points to 32 percent - the first time that poll had National in the 30s since the 2020 election.
The general election will be held next year.
How the poll was conducted
Source: 1 News
Between March 5-8, 2022, 1000 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online (500). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. For party support and preferred Prime Minister, percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, education level and ethnic identification. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel.
- additional reporting ODT Online
