Poll shows surge in support for Te Pāti Māori

Te Pati Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngawera-Packer Photo: RNZ
Te Pati Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngawera-Packer Photo: RNZ

Te Pāti Māori has seen the biggest movement tonight's 1News-Verian political poll, gaining three points and overtaking New Zealand First.

The coalition of National, ACT and New Zealand First would still have 63 seats under these numbers - more than enough to govern the country.

• National: 37 percent, steady (46 seats)

• Labour: 29 percent, steady (36 seats)

• Greens: 10 percent, down 2 percentage points (12 seats)

• ACT: 8 percent, steady (10 seats)

• Te Pāti Māori: 7 percent, up 3 (9 seats)

• NZ First: 6 percent, down 1 (7 seats)

Of the parties outside Parliament, TOP was down 1 point at 2 percent, and Freedoms NZ was steady at 1 percent.

Compared to the election results, National is down two seats, Labour is up two, the Greens are down three, ACT is down one, NZ First is down one and Te Pāti Māori is up two.

The results ignore the 10 percent of respondents who refused to say which party they would vote for, or said they did not know.

Preferred prime minister

Movement on the preferred prime minister stakes was fairly minimal, though Te Pāti Māori's Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke appeared in the poll for the first time.

• Christopher Luxon: 24 percent - down 1 percentage point.

• Chris Hipkins: 15 percent - steady

• Chlöe Swarbrick: 6 percent, steady

• David Seymour: 6 percent, down 2

• Winston Peters: 5 percent, down 1

• Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke: 1 percent, up 1

The poll surveyed 1006 eligible voters (501 by mobile phone, 505 using online panels) and was weighted for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level, with a margin of error of 3.1 percent at the 95 percent confidence interval.

It was conducted between November 30 and December 4.

Polls compare to the most recent poll by the same polling company, as different polls can use different methodologies. They are intended to track trends in voting preferences, showing a snapshot in time, rather than be a completely accurate predictor of the final election result.