Voters were asked whether they approved or disapproved of how Luxon and Hipkins were handling their jobs as Prime Minister and as leader of the Labour Party. (File photo)
Photo: RNZ
A new poll shows voters approval for the leaders of the two most major parties is dropping significantly.
The latest 1News Verian poll has Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with an overall approval rating of -14, down from -7 in March. Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins scored +1, still in the positives, but a 15 point drop from a result earlier this year.
Voters were asked whether they approved or disapproved of how Luxon and Hipkins were handling their jobs as Prime Minister and as leader of the Labour Party.
Thirty-eight percent of voters approved of Luxon, while 52 percent disapproved, giving an overall score of -14. This is his lowest approval rating as Prime Minister.
Forty-two percent of voters approved of Hipkins while 41 percent disapproved, giving an overall score of +1, a drop from his March/ April rating of +16.
It comes after a Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll had National below 30 last week.
The party vote remained largely unchanged since the last 1News Verian poll in August.
National was steady on 34 percent support, while Labour was down 1 point, now at 32 percent.
The Greens are up 1 point at 11 percent while New Zealand First is steady on 9 percent and ACT is also steady on 8 percent.
Te Pāti Māori is down 1 point, to 3 percent. The party would hold onto its 6 seats if it held onto its 6 electorates.
Under these numbers, the National/ACT/NZ First coalition would have 63 seats, while the parties on the left would have 60 – slightly more than the last poll but still not enough to govern.
The poll was taken between October 4 and October 8. 1014 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online (502). The maximum sampling error is approximately +3.1 percent-points at the 95 percent confidence level.
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