1News-Verian poll: PM Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins both take a hit

National and Labour have both dipped slightly in the latest 1News-Verian poll and both Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins dropped in popularity.

Luxon is on 25% as preferred Prime Minister while Hipkins is at 15% – both down three percentage points on the last poll.

National was on 37% and Labour was on 29% – both down one point since the last poll in August.

The Green Party was at 12%, Act 8%, NZ First 5% and Te Pāti Māori 4%.

Luxon had dropped three points as preferred Prime Minister down to 25% and Hipkins had also dropped three points to 15%. Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick was down 1 point to 6% and NZ First leader Winston Peters was also on 6%, up one point. Act Party leader David Seymour was on 4%.

Luxon told 1News it was a “really tough time” for Kiwis but the Government was focused on delivering for New Zealanders.

“We’re making tough decisions, we’re also moving at an incredible pace. There’s encouraging signs, we’ve seen some good recent progress around interest rates, around inflation falling, but importantly we’re also seeing people saying they’re confident about the future and the direction that we’re going.”

On the preferred Prime Minister results, he said he was not focused on polls but working for New Zealanders because the country had “fantastic potential”.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins – who spent two weeks overseas in the United Kingdom earlier this month – said he was not too worried about his preferred Prime Minister ranking at this point in the electoral cycle.

He said in all of the publicly available polls Labour was up on its election night result, although they did “bounce around” from month to month.

“We knew that rebuilding our support, getting ourselves into shape to win the next election was not going to be an overnight process.”

Hipkins took aim at the Government, pointing to its moves on tobacco regulation as well as the funding issues in health. “I don’t think that’s what Kiwis had in mind when they voted for change at the last election.”

Act leader David Seymour responded to the poll by telling 1News “the fact that we are ahead in these economic conditions speaks to just how bad the economic management of the last Government was”.

The last 1News Verian poll in August had shown a lift in support for Luxon with a 5-point increase to 28% as preferred Prime Minister while Hipkins was steady on 18%.

In that August poll, National was on 38% and Labour was on 30%, the Green Party was at 11%, Act 7%, NZ First 6% and Te Pāti Māori 4%.

The new 1News-Verian poll marks a year since the 2023 election, which delivered a change in government to the National Party coalition with NZ First and the Act Party.

The poll of 1000 eligible voters was taken from October 5 to 9 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

The polling period coincided with protest action against the Government’s decision to reconsider plans to rebuild Dunedin Hospital, citing a cost blowout, and further progression of fast-track consenting legislation.

A Taxpayers Union Curia poll out last Friday was taken over the same period and showed National support dropping 4.1 percentage points to 34.9% – its lowest result in 15 months in the Curia polls.

Labour’s 30.3% result was up 3.6 points on the last poll in September.

In that poll, Luxon was down five percentage points to 27.7% in the preferred PM rankings and Labour leader Hipkins jumped 4.3 points to 16.9%.

Earlier today, 1News also released a poll question showing 30% of people thought the country was in better shape than a year ago, while 40% thought it was in worse shape and 26% thought little had changed. Four per cent did not know or refused to say.

At the weekly post Cabinet press conference on Monday afternoon, Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis pushed the Government’s progress on the cost of living front over the year since the election, noting inflation was falling, food prices were dropping and the Reserve Bank had cut the Official Cash Rate by a further 50 basis points last week, down to 4.75%.

Willis said the economy and the Government’s books were still in a bad state, but there were signs their Government’s actions to trim spending were starting to have an impact.

The cost of living was the dominant issue during the 2023 election and continues to be the highest-ranked issue for voters in polls.