KEY POINTS:
The Labour Government is finishing the year on a sour note - thrashed in another two polls and facing bitter opposition in Parliament tomorrow when it pushes the Electoral Finance Bill into law.
And it has copped another broadside from former Labour Prime Minister-turned-critic Mike Moore, who said
the bill - which puts tight limits on political advertising for non-MPs - was "without precedent in the free world".
One News and 3 News last night revealed poll results that reinforce the trend of last month's Herald-DigiPoll survey.
If figures from all three polls were translated into votes, National would have enough seats to govern alone,
Last night's 3 News-TNS poll put National ahead of Labour by 15 points, 51 per cent to 36 per cent.
National was up four points and Labour down two.
The One News-Colmar Brunton poll showed National ahead by 19 points (54 to 35) - a rise of five for National and drop of two for Labour.
The Herald-DigiPoll survey gave National 51.3 per cent of support - a lead over Labour of 13.4 points.
Mr Key said today the twin poll results showed the country wanted a change of government.
"There is a very, very strong mood for change out there from all sorts of quarters," he said on Radio New Zealand.
Mr Key said people were perceiving the Government as arrogant - and also appeared to have no answers on the "big issues" such as improving people's wages and income.
But Miss Clark played down the significance of the results.
"About a month ago there were polls that put us four to five points behind. Suddenly you have two near to Christmas that say 17 and 19," she said on TV One's Breakfast programme.
"We all know there is only one poll that counts and that'll be some time later next year."
In apparent reference several recent cases involving her own ministers, she added: "Obviously I take a message from it that there has been some nonsense going on that's got to stop and that's a very clear message I take to my team."
But she said National would struggle next year when it had to release policy, which it had been avoiding up until now.
In both last night's polls, The Green Party would be tipped out of Parliament after polling below the 5 per cent of support needed to stay there without an electorate seat.
All three polls also put New Zealand First out of Parliament, but that has been a consistent trend all year.
National has had more than 50 per cent support several times in Herald and One News polls but this is the first time it has passed the mark in the 3 News survey.
The biggest difference between the polls now is the preferred Prime Minister - Helen Clark was well ahead in the Herald poll, but Key, after only a year as leader, is ahead in both of the television polls.
The One News poll also shows a significant change in respondents' view of the economic outlook.
The number of people optimistic about the country's economic future was down six points to 31 per cent, and the pessimists were up six at 41 per cent.
Labour has endured months of bad publicity over several incidents that are dragging on - the assault case involving minister Trevor Mallard and National MP Tau Henare, employment problems at the Ministry for the Environment, including Mr Mallard's failure to apologise after attacking the work of a former contractor there, and trenchant criticism over the Electoral Finance Bill, including front-page advocacy from the Herald.
National's tactics last week have forced Parliament to reconvene tomorrow for the final furious debate on the bill before it becomes law on January 1.
That law will broaden the definition of election advertising, impose spending limits on political advertising by groups outside Parliament, and lengthen the period of regulation to virtually the whole of election year instead of three months.
Mike Moore said yesterday that the legislation would be tested in the courts, and that was no way to decide an election.
"The bill is wrong in principle and substance and will end up doing the opposite of what its authors expected."
He asked why transparent funding of political parties had been ignored.
