With a new poll showing voters back Judith Collins to change the flagging fortunes of the National Party, the leader is in studio today with Newstalk ZB's Kerre McIvor as she hits the campaign trail.
Half of voters say that the National Party will do better under Judith Collins than under her predecessor Todd Muller, according to a NZ Herald-Kantar Vote 2020 poll.
Collins took over as party leader on July 14 after Muller stood down citing health concerns following a tumultuous href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12347793" target="_blank">53 days in the job.
Asked about the leadership change, 50 per cent of those polled said National was likely to do better at the election with Collins as leader, 18 per cent said National was likely to do worse, and 19 per cent said it would not affect National's vote.
Collins declined to comment on the poll, and National's campaign chair Gerry Brownlee wouldn't be drawn on the poll results.
Brownlee, who is also National's deputy leader, said that Collins was "getting a great reception up and down the country".
"People are deeply concerned about what the Reserve Bank has said is the worse economic outlook for 160 years and are encouraged by our plan to get through it."
He said National had a history of getting New Zealand out of rough economic times, but the Labour Party has sought to paint National as no longer the party of Sir John Key and Bill English.
The poll showed that those who had more faith in Collins as leader tended to be older (62 per cent of those aged 60 and over) and richer (58 per cent of those earning at least $100,000 a year).
The proportion of those believing National will do better with Collins at the helm falls from 50 per cent to 39 per cent for those earning under $50,000 a year.
Younger people also tended to think National would be better under Muller; a quarter of those under 30 said National will be worse off, 7 percentage points higher than the general population.
poll
The poll ran from July 29 to August 3, with a sample size of 1000 voters and a margin or error of 3.1 per cent.
The latest 1 News Colmar Brunton poll, on July 30, had National on 32 per cent support, while Labour could govern with a parliamentary majority with 53 per cent support.
When it came to preferred Prime Minister, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern is steady on 54 per cent - while Collins was on 20 per cent.
Those results were better for National than the Newshub Reid Research poll from July 27, which had National on 25 per cent and Labour on 60 per cent.
