Wairarapa MP John Hayes is confident he has the support of his constituents after speaking against same-sex marriage in Parliament.
On Wednesday night Mr Hayes spoke and voted against the Marriage Amendment Bill that would allow same-sex couples to legally marry.
In his speech, Mr Hayes said his electorate did not support the bill. He had received "several thousand" replies to a request for people to let him know where they stood on the issue.
"My constituents do not understand why a change in civil marriage is important. They say it will impact on a few, be noticed in their daily life by even fewer people, and have minimal, if any, direct impact on most New Zealanders," he said.
He later said the responses he received had opposed the bill by a ratio of four to one.
But feedback to the Times-Age has questioned the accuracy of Mr Hayes' survey, and whom he had spoken to.
Kate Keeys posted on the Times-Age Facebook page: "Really disappointed I polled a few of my friends here in Martinborough and their response was similar to mine - 'Who did John Hayes talk to?' All those who were polled by John, please step forward."
John Bridge followed that with: "I bet there are not too many who will step forward John Hayes has been out of touch with his electorate for some time."
But Mr Hayes said he'd had positive feedback on the speech, and had received an email every second on the subject on Thursday morning. By 10pm that night that had dropped to an email every 30 seconds.
While he had yet to go through them all, Mr Hayes said the overwhelming sentiment seemed to be thanking him for his position on the issue.
When pushed for exact numbers, Mr Hayes said his smartphone showed that on Thursday he received 1294 emails "and they're still coming in".
He said although he voted against the bill, he said he was not a homophobe.
It was now time to move on, Mr Hayes said, because "that issue is done and dusted".