Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he hasn't considered stepping down from the top job as a dismal poll result saw support for the National Party plummet to the 20s.
Speculation swirled after a Taxpayers' Union-Curia, released today, saw National drop 2.9 points to sit at 28.4%.
Meanwhile, Labour was up 0.3 points to 34.4%, and the Greens gained 0.2 points to reach 10.5%. The results indicated the centre-left bloc could form a government with a slim margin at the next general election on November 7.
New Zealand First dropped 0.8 points to 9.7%. ACT gained 0.8 points to 7.5%, while Te Pāti Māori gained 0.3 points to 3.2%.
Luxon spoke on Newstalk ZB with Heather du Plessis-Allan this afternoon to dispel speculation that the latest polling results had him considering his role as leader of the National Party.
“Absolutely not," Luxon said when asked about stepping down.
"The only thing I am considering is the future of our children and grandchildren.
"The only polling I look at is our internal polling. If there was a problem, I would be doing something about it."
The Prime Minister said he had returned to his electorate of Botany after being down in Masterton to seemingly "the whole world" getting "very exorcised about I'm considering my future".
"The reason I'm coming on your show is to clarify to people, no, I'm not doing that," he said.
"I'm considering very deeply the future for New Zealand and nothing's changed for me. So, I appreciate the media may have got carried away through the course of the day in reacting to another public poll, of which there are many, and I'm just trying to give some perspective to it and some balance to it."
The Prime Minister said he hadn't considered a benchmark polling result at which point he would reconsider his future.
"It's not something I've thought about at all, and I haven't discussed it with anybody because it hasn't needed to be a conversation," he said.
He continued: "If I spent all my time each and every week commenting on different polls that are presented and pitched to me as gospel, as Bible, as true, and debating that, that is a waste of my time.
"What New Zealanders expect me to be doing is cracking on with the job that I was elected to do. They get to determine a poll on November the 7th. They get to make that decision. We've got a long way to go until then."
With the results as they were polling, the party would lose 12 of its top MPs, including Nicola Willis and Paul Goldsmith.
But Luxon remained confident in his position, saying he had "the full support of my team and my caucus".
When questioned about a series of gaffes earlier this week – including that New Zealand supported "any actions" to stop Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon – Luxon said he was "not a career politician" and was "not going to always have the perfect, most tidy soundbite like someone who's been there 20 years would do".
Christopher Luxon walks back his comments on visas being extended for those impacted by the conflict. (Source: 1News)
"I will probably make mistakes and not get it perfect each and every time. But that's not what I'm there to do," he said.
"I'm there to do is to communicate to the best of my ability, but most importantly, to drive a team to improve economic outcomes, to create opportunity for New Zealanders. That's what I'm doing.
"We're dealing with a really crappy situation we've inherited. We've got really volatile global conditions. We're navigating through the economic challenges we've got. I'm doing it with the coalition partners as a result, and we've got a team of ministers that I think are doing an admirable job."
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