Herald DigiPoll: Greens lead surge by minor parties

By FRANCESCA MOLD political reporter

Support for the Green Party is nudging 10 per cent while National continues to slide just three weeks out from the election, the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey reports.

The poll is also good news for New Zealand First and Act, with the latter collecting enough support to rise above the 5 per cent threshold needed to get back into Parliament.

However, National has slipped a further point since a similar poll a week ago to just 24.6 per cent support - its worst result in the five-year history of the Herald-DigiPoll survey.

The poll, carried out in a five-day period which included the televised party political broadcasts and Sunday's election launches, also saw support for Labour drop just under a point to 51.2 per cent.

The findings mean the gap between the two major parties has grown to almost 27 percentage points - more than double National's current rating.

National leader Bill English said he was not worried about the result.

"I'm getting a good reception on the campaign trail. We're doing fine."

Mr English believed people were not taking their decision about whom to vote for seriously yet.

They would make up their minds when the major issues such as health, education and the Treaty of Waitangi unfolded during the campaign, he said.

The poll found support for the Greens had climbed 1.3 percentage points to 9.6 since last week's Herald-DigiPoll survey.

Their support has continued to grow since the party announced that a continued moratorium on the commercial release of genetically modified products would be the bottom line for any potential coalition deal.

In March, the Greens were polling at 5.3 per cent. After the GM declaration, a June 10 poll put their support at 7.7 per cent.

About 5.7 per cent of the 801 voters interviewed for the latest poll said they would tick the Act box in the polling booth on July 27.

This compares to just 4.4 per cent support last week.

NZ First gathered a further 0.6 of a percentage point in the new poll, taking the party up to 4.4.

Other parties registering support were Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition on 1.4 per cent, Christian Heritage on 0.9, the Alliance and Mana Motuhake both on 0.2 and United Future on 0.1.

The latest poll results mean most of the same parties would find themselves back in Parliament - but some would have very different numbers of MPs.

Labour would go back into the House with the ability to govern alone, but the sudden surge in support for the small parties would whittle its majority down to 63 seats compared with the 68 indicated in last week's poll.

However, the new figures would provide extra support for Labour in the form of Jim Anderton and the number two on his Progressive Coalition list, Matt Robson.

National would fill just 31 of the 120 seats - eight fewer than at present.

The Greens would win positions for 12 MPs - five more than the party has now.

Act would have to give up two of the seats it holds now, bringing in just seven of its list MPs.

Four New Zealand First MPs would ride into Parliament on the back of a Winston Peters win in Tauranga, and United's Peter Dunne would take up his seat alone again.

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