Labour remained out in front on 35%, up 0.7 points since September, while National slipped to 31.9%, down 0.6.<\/p>\n
NZ First had the biggest bump in support, jumping 1.1 points, to hit 9.8%, its highest result with Reid Research since July 2017.<\/p>\n
The Green Party fell 1.3 points to register 9.6%. Act was on 7.6%, up 0.4 points.<\/p>\n
And Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori continued its slide, falling to 3%, down 1.1 points.<\/p>\n
Outside of Parliament, The Opportunity Party picked up support, climbing 0.9 points, to touch 2.3%.<\/p>\n
The poll \u2013 which ran from January 15-22 \u2013 surveyed 1000 eligible voters online with a maximum margin of error of 3.1%. Undecided or non-voters made up 7.2% of those polled.<\/p>\n
If those were the results on election day, National would bring in 40 MPs, NZ First 12 and Act nine.<\/p>\n
That would make 61 MPs between the current coalition parties, the slimmest possible majority in a 120-seat Parliament.<\/p>\n
On the left, Labour would pick up 43 seats, the Greens 12 and Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori four. Together, that adds up to 59 MPs, not enough to claim power.<\/p>\n
If Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori retained all six of its current seats, however, Parliament would have a two-seat overhang, resulting in a 61-61 deadlock.<\/p>\n
Percentage of poll respondents who named the following leaders as their preferred Prime Minister. Photo \/ RNZ, Kate Newton<\/p>\n
NZ First\u2019s lift in support was mirrored in Peters\u2019 personal standing too.<\/p>\n
On the preferred Prime Minister measure, Peters jumped a sizeable 3.7 points to hit 12.6%, his highest result in the series since January 2016.<\/p>\n
His surge helped close the gap with the leaders of Labour and National, both of whom took a knock in support.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s Chris Hipkins remained the top choice of voters, receiving the backing of 21.1% of voters, down 1.9 points.<\/p>\n
National\u2019s Christopher Luxon dropped 0.2 points to 19.4%.<\/p>\n
Almost 17% of voters declined to choose a prime ministerial candidate or said they did not know.<\/p>\n
Proportion of poll respondents who said New Zealand was heading in the right direction under the current government, the wrong direction, or that they didn’t know. Photo \/ RNZ, Kate Newton<\/p>\n
The poll also found an improvement in general sentiment since the lows of September, though it still remained deep in negative territory.<\/p>\n
The results showed 36.3% (up 2.3) of respondents thought the country was heading in the right direction, compared to 46.6% (down 2.3) who thought the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
That gives a net score of -10.3, an improvement of 3.3 points compared to the last poll in September.<\/p>\n
Just over 15% of voters sat on the fence, while another 1.8% said they did not know.<\/p>\n
National supporters were the most optimistic with a net score of +65.8, followed by Act supporters on +28.2.<\/p>\n
Notably, more NZ First voters thought the country was on the wrong track than the right track, recording a net score of -9.9.<\/p>\n
Is the cost of living easier or harder to manage than a year ago? Photo \/ RNZ-Reid Research poll<\/p>\n
The pessimism also showed up when voters were asked to consider their financial position compared to one year ago.<\/p>\n
Asked about the cost of living, 57.5% of respondents said they were finding it harder to manage than this time last year. Just 6.4% said they were finding it easier and 34.8% said \u201cabout the same\u201d.<\/p>\n
Similarly, just 12.2% of voters said they felt better off financially compared to January 2025. More than 46% said they were worse off, while 40.1% said neither.<\/p>\n
Do you feel financially better or worse off than you did a year ago? Photo \/ RNZ-Reid Research poll<\/p>\n
Politicians respond – or don\u2019t<\/p>\n
Both Luxon and Peters declined interview requests from RNZ. A spokesperson for Luxon said he was prioritising the weather event situation.<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori also declined to be interviewed.<\/p>\n
Speaking to RNZ, Hipkins said he was encouraged by Labour\u2019s continued rise in the polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would suggest a neck-and-neck result,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot more work to do … but being ahead of National, being the most popular party in New Zealand, that\u2019s a good place to start election year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hipkins said he would not read too much into Peters\u2019 jump, saying NZ First\u2019s support was always \u201cvery volatile\u201d.<\/p>\n
NZ First leader Winston Peters. Photo \/ RNZ, Mark Papalii<\/p>\n
Greens\u2019 co-leader Marama Davidson said, regardless of the polls, the party would stay focused on finding solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstandably, people are exhausted and switched off, but this November, people get to use their power and agency to demand so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Act leader David Seymour told RNZ his party started election year in a \u201cvery comfortable position\u201d and he intended to build on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve shown that we can be effective and collegial in government … but we\u2019re also prepared to say when the emperor has no clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n
This poll of 1000 people was conducted by Reid Research, using quota sampling and weighting to ensure representative cross section by age, gender and geography. The poll was conducted through online interviews between January 15-22, 2026 and has a maximum margin of error of +\/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour remained out in front on 35%, up 0.7 points since September, while National slipped to 31.9%, down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11231,1038,6650,1888,2082,42,6721,26478,117,43,69,13027,1518,147163,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-254432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-boost","tag-brings","tag-craig","tag-first","tag-for","tag-headlines","tag-labour","tag-mcculloch","tag-new","tag-news","tag-nz","tag-poll","tag-research","tag-rnzreid","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}