By VERNON SMALL
The electorate's honeymoon with Labour and Helen Clark shows no sign of cooling, with both scoring record levels of support in the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.
But Labour's junior coalition partner, the Alliance, must be wondering when some of the gloss will start to rub off on it, as it joins Act below 5 per cent.
Labour's support has soared to 54 per cent, from 39 per cent on election night as voters reward a mix of good luck, good planning and an impeccable performance by the Prime Minister.
National scored 26.2 per cent, down from its 30.5 per cent vote in November.
The Greens were the only other party to break the 5 per cent threshold, with 7.3 per cent, compared with 5.2 per cent at the general election.
The Alliance fell to 4.3 per cent, from 7.74 per cent; and Act from 7.04 per cent, to 3.9 per cent.
The poll will increase unease in the Alliance, which has adopted a long-term strategy of not destabilising the Coalition. It will view with particular concern the strong support for its rival on the left, the Greens.
Just over half those polled saw the Greens as a positive influence on the country. One in three saw them as a negative influence.
The news was worst for New Zealand First, which scored only 1.5 per cent, taking it back to its darkest days of the last parliamentary term. The party won 4.26 per cent of the election vote.
Translated into seats in the House, and assuming none of the parties below 5 per cent won a constituency, Labour would win 74 seats, National 36 and the Greens 10.
Helen Clark's rating as Prime Minister has matched the performance of her party.
She was the preferred Prime Minister of 55.9 per cent of those polled, against 15.4 per cent who opted for National's former PM, Jenny Shipley.
Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton won the backing of 4.2 per cent of those polled, but his plans to use taxpayer cash to promote jobs was supported by 62.7 per cent.
More than 35 per cent trusted him not to destabilise the Coalition, but 41.7 per cent did not.
Others to register as preferred Prime Minister were Act leader Richard Prebble (2.6 per cent), National finance spokesman Bill English (1.2 per cent), and Winston Peters (0.7 per cent).
Almost 44 per cent rated the general economic situation as about the same as a year ago, but 34 per cent thought it was better.
About 18 per cent thought it had deteriorated.
The survey, of 752 people, was taken between March 11 and 16, and has a margin of error of 3.6 per cent.
The polling period covered the introduction of the Coalition's industrial relations law, Helen Clark's trip to Chile and the aftermath of her talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
Honeymoon rolls on for PM, Labour
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