Support for coalition govt drops in new poll

The three coalition leaders arrive for the announcement. Photo: NZ Herald
National, Act and NZ First have all taken a hit in the latest poll. Photo: NZ Herald

New Zealand First would be out of Parliament, and Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori would have enough seats to form a government together, according to the latest 1 News Verian Poll.

National is on 36 percent, down two points on the previous poll from February.

ACT is down a point to 7 percent, while New Zealand First is down two points to 4 percent - below the 5 percent threshold needed to get into Parliament.

Labour is up two points to 30 percent , the Greens are up two to 14 percent, and while Te Pāti Māori is steady on 4 percent and so also below the threshold, the poll assumes it keeps its electorate seats.

With New Zealand First out, National's 48 seats and ACT's 9 would not be enough to cross the line.

Labour would have 40 seats, the Greens 18, and Te Pāti Māori 6.

The result would see the Luxon-led government be the first single-term National-led government, TVNZ reports.

This was not an unprecedented result for an incumbent government though has not historically happened so early in its tenure, with similar results experienced by Key and Clark governments in their third terms, it reports.

In the preferred Prime Minister stakes, Christopher Luxon is down two points to 23 percent, while Chris Hipkins is up a point to 16 percent.

New Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick is on 6 percent, up two points. David Seymour is down one point to 5 percent, and Winston Peters is down two points to 4 percent.

Hipkins told TVNZ the poll "should be a real wake up call" for the coalition government, while Luxon said they were "cleaning up a hell of a mess" from the previous government.

Pessimism in the economy was up seven points to 26 percent, and optimism down 3 points to 36 percent.

The poll was taken between 20-24 April with a sample of 1000 people surveyed by mobile phone and online, with a ±3.1 percent-point margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level.