Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said poor poll results for the coalition Government reflect New Zealanders were finding times tough.
Two political polls released yesterday showed the left bloc of Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori would have enough support to form the next Government, while also suggesting more people believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The latest 1News-Verian poll found support had dipped for the three coalition Government parties, who could only muster 60 seats in Parliament, not enough to meet the 61-seat majority required. However, a combination of Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori did reach the 61-seat threshold.
It followed a Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll earlier yesterday that also found the left bloc could form a government.
Luxon told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast the polls reflected New Zealanders have been “going through a lot of economic pain”.
“We’ve been flat-out going at it,” he said of his Government.
“I get it... tough times. We’ve got to focus on the economy. We’ve got to show by 2026 that actually they [New Zealanders] are better off under this Government than the last lot.”
Luxon told Hosking he believed David Seymour, who - months out from being made Deputy Prime Minister- tried to drive up Parliament’s steps in a historic Land Rover, was “trying to get media attention” as small parties do.
Yesterday, Luxon described the Act Party leader’s letter to police advocating for Phillip Polkinghorne, the eye surgeon accused and then found not guilty of murdering his wife, as “ill-advised”.
“I frankly spend little time thinking about what David [Seymour] does with his letters and his Jeep,” he told the Mike Hosking Breakfast show on Newstalk ZB.
“This politics game is a different game. I’ve got very little time for that stuff.”
Senior National MP Chris Bishop agreed with Luxon that Seymour’s letter was “ill-advised”.
“The Prime Minister’s made that clear,” he told the Herald this morning.
But he said he did not think there was tension between Luxon and Seymour, and would not be drawn on whether Seymour’s criticisms of the PM were appropriate.
Seymour responded to the PM yesterday by saying on RNZ: “What’s ill-advised is commenting when you don’t know all the facts and criticising a local MP for doing their work, which is standing up for their constituents.”
Polkinghorne, who lived in Seymour’s Epsom electorate, had not been charged with murder at the time Seymour sent his letter to police.
Seymour told Newstalk ZB he was “very careful” in writing the letter by expressing his respect for the constitutional arrangement mandating separation between politicians and police investigations.
Seymour also noted the police website encouraged people who felt they had been treated unfairly by police to contact their local MP.
While Luxon said there was no breach of the Cabinet Manual, Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called on Seymour to be sacked, saying MPs – regardless of whether they were a minister or not – should not be “interfering” in a murder investigation.
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