Pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister with a bad poll result putting National in the 20s.
By Jo Moir of RNZ
A new Taxpayers' Union Curia poll has National on 28.4% - down nearly 3 points from its poll last month.
Labour is up slightly on 34.4%, while the Greens, ACT, and Te Pati Maori are all up on 10.5%, 7.5%, and 3.2%, respectively.
New Zealand First has taken a slight drop to 9.7%.
On these results, it would give the centre-Left bloc 61 seats, enough to govern, while the coalition government bloc would fall short on 59 seats.
The poll also asked whether Labour or National were better managers of specific policy areas.
National is ahead on the economy and spending, while Labour led on health, poverty, inflation, education, safety, housing, environment, and not increasing taxes.
The poll of 1000 New Zealanders was conducted between Sunday March 1 and Tuesday March 3 and has a margin of error +/- 3.1%.
Luxon trips up on Iran
The poll comes at the end of a week where Christopher Luxon struggled to communicate clearly on the Iran conflict.
Curia is National's internal party pollster and the dismal result for the governing party follows a low of 29% by the same polling company in October.
Luxon has had to correct the record twice this week after misspeaking on the US-Israel attack on Iran.
It's prompted chatter amongst his caucus and coalition partners that the Prime Minister is struggling to articulate the government's messages, and could be hindering the party's chances of election success in November.
Foreign Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters put in his two cents from Brazil on Friday morning.
"It is not good, is it?
"You can't say anything else. It is not the end of everything. But those of us who are not in the National Party, on this matter, on the outside, it is not good, no," he told Ryan Bridge Today
Judith Collins, a senior minister in Luxon's cabinet who is retiring in the coming months, told the same show that the public shouldn't be "spooked" by the poll.
Collins, a former leader who took the party to a crushing 25.58% result at the 2020 election, told Ryan Bridge Today it was a "tough job" being Prime Minister when the world was facing so much uncertainty.
She said other leaders were facing similar polling results, and she saw it as a "temporary thing" for Luxon.
National MPs have been rattled by the Prime Minister's performance this week, and concerns have been raised about whether Luxon was getting worse, rather than better, at communicating with the public via media interviews.
'Not a good number' - Willis
Finance Minister and National deputy leader Nicola Willis has shared her thoughts, telling Newstalk ZB, "it is not a good number" ahead of the poll's release.
"If that was the number National got on the actual election, that would not be an acceptable result. We have to do better than that.
"I am not happy with that number. I don't think our National Party team would be happy with that number. I don't think the Prime Minister would be satisfied with that number," Willis told Newstalk ZB.
The Prime Minister was in Wellington this week as Parliament was sitting, and headed to Masterton on Thursday to the Golden Shears.
Luxon is often in the regions on a Thursday, as are other party leaders, but unusually did not hold a media conference and currently has no plans for one on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
It means by the time of his Monday morning weekly media round, it will have been five days since he faced reporters' questions.
At the end of last year, Luxon came under pressure when National received low ratings in the Ipsos Issues Monitor Poll - losing the economy to Labour as an issue it could best manage.
It triggered rumblings in the National caucus and speculation that the numbers were being done, and soundings were being taken as to whether senior minister Chris Bishop would do a better job in the election year.
The chatter ultimately came to nothing, and with Luxon back under scrutiny by his caucus this week Chris Bishop is nowhere to be seen having boarded a flight to India today.
It means he won't be in Wellington when his caucus meets on Tuesday, unless he chooses to return early.
SHARE ME