Latest poll reveals good news for Govt

The Government has been given a reprieve in the latest Taxpayers UnionCuria Poll, which shows it would hold office if an election were held today.

It follows two other polls, which showed support for the coalition falling to the point there would be a change of Government.

The good news for the coalition is tempered by the fact that this latest poll shows a fairly large increase in support for Labour and static support for National and NZ First.

National was up by 0.2 points to 37.3 per cent.

Labour has charged ahead by 4.3 points to 30 per cent.

The Greens plummeted 4.4 points to 10.2 per cent, while Act was up 2.2 points to 9.4 per cent.

NZ First fell 0.8 points to 5.5 per cent, and Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori fell 1.5 points to 3.1 per cent.

That would give National 47 seats, Act 12 seats and NZ First 7 seats — enough to govern.

Labour would have just 37 seats, with the Greens getting 13 seats. The result assumes Te Pa¯ti Ma¯ori holds its six electorates.

Voters were feeling generous this month, with all the polled politicians seeing rising levels of support.

National leader Christopher Luxon’s net favourability was up 15 points to +8 per cent. Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ support also increased, rising 5 points to -1 per cent. Act leader David Seymour was up 4 points to -7 per cent and NZ First leader Winston Peters was up 13 points to -5 per cent.

Paul Goldsmith and Simeon Brown were also polled. They had net favourabilities of +5 per cent and +6 per cent.

The rising cost of living continues to be the most important issue for voters, polling 35 per cent, followed by the economy on 13 per cent and Law and Order and Health, both on 7 per cent.

A net 2.5 per cent of voters think the country is heading in the right direction. That figure has been negative in recent months. The number of people who think the country is going in the right direction rose 6.2 points to

45.1 per cent, while the number of people who thought the country was heading in the wrong direction fell 5.3 points to 42.6 per cent.

The poll was conducted from May

5 to May 7. The median response was collected on May 6, and had a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.