Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins go head-to-head in Question Time after dual popularity drop

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins is interrogating Prime Minister Christopher Luxon over the Government’s commitment to the South Island in light of its roading investments and delayed replacement of the Interislander ferries.

It comes after the two party leaders suffered declines in popularity according to the latest poll.

In yesterday’s 1News-Verian poll, Luxon was on 25% as preferred Prime Minister while Hipkins was at 15% – both down three percentage points on the last poll.

Their respective parties had also dropped one point from the August poll with National on 37% and Labour on 29%. The Green Party was at 12%, Act 8%, NZ First 5% and Te Pāti Māori 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”.

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.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins will be interrogating PM Christopher Luxon during Question Time today. Photo / Marty Melville

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.

Today’s Question Time was the first since September following a two-week recess block.

It followed a ministerial statement raised by Minister Chris Penk on behalf of Defence Minister Judith Collins about the sinking of the navy vessel Manawanui near Samoa.

In response to questions from MPs, Penk was unable to give further details about when the vessel might be recovered, whether it would be recovered, and whether compensation would be offered to Samoa.

Starting Question Time, Hipkins questioned the Government’s support for the South Island given it hadn’t made a decision on the replacement of the Cook Strait Interislander ferries and only had two of its roads of national significance in the South Island.

Luxon maintained his Government was committed to the South Island and urged the Opposition to “watch this space” regarding a decision on the ferries.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.