National leader Christopher Luxon says the latest 1News Kantar Public poll results are "encouraging" and signal an appetite for change in the New Zealand public, but acknowledges there's more work to do.
The numbers showed that National could form a governing coalition with the ACT Party with a majority of just one seat.
National held steady at 37% while Labour rose one point to 34%, and Labour leader Jacinda Ardern remained steady at 30% in the preferred prime minister results while Luxon dipped by one point to 21%.
"The New Zealand people are telling us that the country is heading in the wrong direction," Luxon told Breakfast this morning. "They feel they've got a government that can't deliver, and they're deeply worried about the cost of living crisis, rising crime, and the health care system falling apart.
"They want a government that can actually manage the economy, deliver public services, and help them get ahead."
And he emphasised that National had "made tremendous progress if you think about where we were just nine months ago".
Luxon was appointed leader of the National Party in late November last year, ten months ago, at a time when National's support polled at 28% and Labour's at 41%. Then-National leader Judith Collins polled at 5% in the preferred Prime Minister results.
"But there's a lot more work to do ... and we're going to work really hard to earn the trust of all New Zealanders and to make the case for why we'd be a great government in 2023," Luxon said.
And he wasn't bothered by Ardern's lead in the preferred Prime Minister stakes in the latest poll. When those polled were asked to choose between only the pair for who they would prefer as Prime Minister, forty-seven per cent wanted Ardern as Prime Minister (up from 46% in March) and 41% wanted Luxon as Prime Minister (down from 45% in March).
"I know that I'm new to politics, I'm not a career politician, I've got a long job interview with the New Zealand people for the next year or so before the election and there's a long way to go and there's a lot more work to do.
"But again, I think we're making encouraging progress considering where we were nine months ago."
Luxon also discussed the economy, rejecting Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson's optimism.
Robertson said yesterday that the Government expects inflation to start trending down from this quarter onwards, acknowledging that it's been "a tough time" but saying he believes the economic tide will turn and the cost of living will fall.
"I think we're as well positioned as any other country in the world is for the global environment that we're facing," he said.
Luxon disagreed: "The bottom line is that New Zealanders know we're sailing into some very turbulent waters".
"In fact they're seeing it now, the cost of living is skyrocketing out of control, we've got rising levels of inflation, we've got falling real wages ... so the reality is, the Government doesn't have a plan for managing the economy well at the moment.
"It needs a proper plan to manage inflation because inflation hurts lots of people and causes real pain and real suffering."
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