Analysis: Herald DigiPoll results

Analysis of the latest figures shows Clark's popularity has slipped - but not enough to lose her placing as preferred PM. See link at foot of page for graphics of the poll results.

Leadership

As Labour takes a hit in the party stakes, Helen Clark has also lost ground as preferred Prime Minister. But she still remains head and shoulders above anyone else.

Her 52.4 per cent rating is down from 57 per cent in April, but is more than double that of National leader Don Brash, who is static at 22.4 per cent. Dr Brash - whose position as National leader has been under close scrutiny - is likely to be buoyed by his party's overall performance in the poll.

But voters are clearly eyeing the main contenders for his job.

John Key climbed to 8.5 per cent in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, and into clear third place ahead of Winston Peters.

Gender

In a major turnaround, National has registered stronger support among females than Labour - something it didn't achieve in any of the Herald polls conducted in the lead-up to last year's election.

National has openly spoken of wanting to woo more women voters, and its female support has risen to 44.3 per cent from 36.7 per cent in April.

But the race for the female vote remains very tight - Labour is close behind on 43.3 per cent, despite falling from 48.2 per cent in April.

Among males, National remains significantly ahead of Labour.

Issues

Health is still considered the most important issue for voters, but after a spate of high-profile cases of violence in recent months more people have nominated law and order, crime and police as the biggest issue - that category rises to 13.5 per cent from 11.3 per cent in April.

Child abuse is a new entrant on the ladder, at 1.5 per cent, after being pushed into the spotlight by the deaths of 3-month old twins Chris and Cru Kahui in June.

There is also a noticeable boost for education, which replaces the economy in third place, rising to 11.2 per cent from 7.3 per cent in April.

Interestingly for National, tax cuts still lag behind the big three of health, law and order and education - 8.6 per cent of respondents cited high taxes as the most important issue in New Zealand. That result is flat compared with April's poll.

Income

National's support in the $52,001 to $77,000 income bracket has surged since April's poll.

National registers 55.4 per cent support in this income range, up from 43.3 per cent - while Labour has slipped in the same bracket to 28.3 per cent from 47 per cent in April.

National has also got a boost in the $33,0001 to $52,000 income bracket, coming in at 45.5 per cent support compared with 34.2 per cent in April.

In this bracket, Labour registers 43.3 per cent support, down slightly from 46.2 per cent in April.

Government performance

Some good news for the Government, with more people saying they think it is heading in the right direction than not. Overall, 46.3 per cent of people do think the Government is going in the right direction, up from 42 per cent in April.

But this is a very tight race - 44.3 per cent said the Government isn't going in the right direction, up from 43.8 per cent.

The difference from April's poll is the number of don't knows, which are down at 9.5 per cent from 14.2 per cent.

Economy

People are less pessimistic about the economic outlook than they were in April, as the much talked about slowdown fails - so far at least - to bite as hard as some people predicted.

Unemployment remains very low, and the number of people who think the economy will worsen in the next 12 months falls to 33.3 per cent from 43.5 per cent in April.

However, there are still more pessimists than optimists, who come in at 29.9 per cent, up from 24.9 per cent.

The number of people who think economic conditions will remain about the same come in at 22.7 per cent, up from 16.6 per cent.