A new poll, five months after the last general election, shows voters seriously unhappy with the new coalition government.
The 1News Verian poll commissioned by TVNZ has New Zealand First falling to 4.2% in the party vote. If an election were held today, that result would knock it out from Parliament again and, with it, the government’s numbers to govern.
The poll found if an election were held today, National would still be the biggest party in Parliament with 36% of the party vote, down 2% on the last 1News Verian Poll.
The numbers show National and ACT would have 57 seats in the House - falling 10 seats short of the number of seats needed to form a majority in the 121 seat Parliament - 61 seats.
The poll, surprisingly, given it is only five months since the last general election, showed Labour could theoretically form a coalition with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Labour has 30% of the party vote, up two points. The Greens are up two points to 14%, while ACT is down one point to 7%. New Zealand First was down 1.8 points, thus below the 5% threshold to return to Parliament.
Luxon down a bit, Hipkins up a bit
Te Pāti Māori held 4% of the party vote but it holds six of the seven Māori electorate seats. Of those polled, 8% didn’t know which party they would vote for or refused to answer.
Those numbers meant in an election scenario National and ACT would have a total of 57 seats in the House - falling short of the 61 seats needed to win government.
Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori – if they negotiated a coalition deal - had a total of 64 seats and would have the numbers to form a government.
Such a strong reaction by voters for a government has only occurred before for the Key and Clark governments in their third terms.
In addition National leader Christopher Luxon has fallen in the preferred prime minister stakes, at 23%, down two percentage points.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has picked up one percentage point to 16%.
Swarbrick, Seymour up
In the first poll since she replaced James Shaw as Greens co-leader, Chlöe Swarbrick is up 2% as the preferred prime minister at 6%.
ACT’s David Seymour and New Zealand First’s Winston Peters - are the preferred prime minister for 5% (up 1%) and 4% (down 2%), respectively.
In the lead up to the poll, Peters gave a state of the nation speech in which he compared co-governance to Nazi Germany, and another at the UN criticising its security council for their use of veto powers and its failure to act decisively in Gaza.
Public submissions for the government’s controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill also closed.