Poll gives Greens highest rating this year

10.00am

Making genetic engineering (GE) its bottom line does not appear to have hurt the Green Party, according to a poll today.

The National Business Review poll, conducted by UMR Research, had support for the Greens up nearly two points to 7.2 per cent, which co-leader Rod Donald said was the party's highest poll rating this year and showed the party was on the right track.

Today's poll had Labour up two points to 53 per cent -- back to the support it enjoyed in NBR's April poll -- while National was down two points to 29 per cent.

ACT was down to 4.5 per cent, Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition was on 1.3 per cent and the Alliance 0.5 per cent.

National Radio said the poll showed four out of 10 National voters were considering backing Labour to keep the Greens out of power.

But the poll put the Greens on 7.2 per cent, suggesting its ultimatums over GE have not hurt it.

Mr Donald told NZPA the Greens were very pleased with the poll because they had thought they might lose support after Prime Minister Helen Clark "slagged us off" over the party's decision to make GE its bottom line.

The Greens voted unanimously at their recent conference to make extending the GE moratorium a condition of entering any coalition and said they would not support any government that allowed the moratorium to end.

Miss Clark has called the Greens' stance "pathetic" and said last month it could potentially drive National supporters into voting for Labour to ensure her party did not need the small party's support to form a government.

Mr Donald told NZPA it was hypothetical that National voters " might switch" to Labour to thwart the Greens.

"I think the question they should have asked is how many Labour voters would contemplate voting Green to stop Labour winning absolute power."

The poll would allow Labour to govern alone. NBR said that under the most likely scenario, Labour would have 68 seats, National 37, the Greens nine, ACT none, New Zealand First four seats, Progressive Coalition two and United Future one.

If four out of 10 National voters were thinking of voting Labour to keep the Greens out, it showed "how far Labour has moved to the right" over issues such as foreign investment, free trade, and backing United States President George W Bush, he said.

National voters should be aware that if they voted for Labour they would also be voting for Finance Minister Michael Cullen's super fund which National opposed.

National leader Bill English did not believe National voters would ultimately switch to Labour. He said on National Radio that those who had already gone to Labour would come back.

The poll also found 62 per cent of voters believed the country was on the right track, compared to 27 per cent who thought it was on the wrong track and 11 per cent who were unsure.

The poll of 750 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 per cent.

Under the scenario, there would be a one-seat overhang in the 120-seat Parliament.

- NZPA