Reaction to the latest political polls from Chloe Swarbrick and Brooke van Velden. Video / Herald NOW
Two conflicting political polls have been released in the past 24 hours, with one showing the coalition holding on to power while the other shows the opposition able to govern.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins emphasised polls give a “snapshot”, noting Labour’s consistent support gain since the election.
Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said polls shouldn’t be treated as a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, but they do show what Kiwis want.
Political leaders are reacting to two conflicting polls, with one indicating a major dip in support for Labour and National, while another shows support growing for the opposition - enough for them to boot the current coalition out.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said RNZ’s poll out this morning, whichsaw a completely different result than last night’s 1News-Verian survey, proved polls are just a “snapshot”.
“The overall trend is that Labour is consistently gaining support since the election and the Government is consistently losing support.”
Hipkins told HeraldNOW’s Ryan Bridge the polls would be skewed by the fact National had not released formal figures showing how they came to the $12.8b contingency in the Budget.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Hipkins could not say if he would reverse the $12.8b contingency if Labour were to be re-elected, but did say he wants to see the pay equity laws reinstated.
“The reason I am not putting a number on it is because we won’t know what that exact number is, it could be bigger or smaller in 18 months.
“What National should do is release to the New Zealand public how they arrived at that figure because it is a very big number.”
Greens co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said polls should not be treated as a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, but said they did show what Kiwis wanted.
“What we are hearing loud and clear is that people want a sense of hope amongst the really bleak prospects.”
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
Act minister Brooke van Velden said she did not want to put too much thought into “one particular poll”.
“I think it’s also true that some of the interesting facts that come from the poll… although we hear a lot of noise outside of Parliament on the pay equity issue, by and large, it was 50-50.
“I think it’s just important we get the facts out there, the facts got lost with all the misinformation from Labour. Perhaps that’s why they had a dip, who knows?
“Equal pay is still here, no woman is having her pay cut.”
She was not given time to comment on RNZ’s poll, which showed an overwhelming majority was against the reformation of the pay equity laws.
The 1News-Verian survey, released yesterday, was taken soon after the release of the Government’s second Budget, which included a $6.6 billion Investment Boost policy, halving the Government’s KiwiSaver contributions and raiding almost $13b set aside for pay equity settlements.
National has taken a 2-percentage point hit, sitting at 34%.
Labour has taken a bigger hit, dipping 3 points to 29%.
