More than half of voters now disapprove of Christopher Luxon's performance as Prime Minister, dragging his approval rating to its lowest point this term, and Labour leader Chris Hipkins has little reason to gloat.
The latest 1News Verian poll showed about a third of voters approved of Luxon's performance as PM, while 55% disapproved, giving him a net approval rating of minus 23.
But Labour's Hipkins wasn't far behind, only faring mildly better.
About 34% of voters approved of his performance and 49% disapproved, putting him on minus 15 as leader of the opposition, which also made it the worst result this term.
1News Verian poll: More bad news for National and Labour leaders - Watch on TVNZ+
Luxon was out with loyal supporters in the Wellington suburb of Tawa today, pushing for votes after the bruising poll for both major parties yesterday.
He took aim at Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, who told 1News yesterday that her party wanted the finance portfolio after her party's best-ever poll result.
Luxon said a Labour-Greens coalition, relying on two other parties and with Swarbrick as finance minister, would "spend more, tax more, borrow more".
Swarbrick hit back, saying National could "keep saying my name" to keep attention on "a wealth tax that is overwhelmingly popular with New Zealanders".
But the idea of a Green finance minister has not won over Labour either.
Asked today what skills Swarbrick had that would make her a good finance minister, Hipkins was blunt.
"Barbara Edmonds will be a finance minister in the Labour-led government. Full stop. End of story. Not negotiable."
He said one poll did not make an election result.
"No one should be measuring up the Beehive for new curtains just yet. There is still a lot of campaigning to go," Hipkins said.
"We should all be focused right now on earning the votes and the trust of New Zealanders, not deciding what jobs we're going to have before anybody has even voted."
Between September 23 and September 27 2026, 1004 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (503) and online using online panels (501). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.4%-points at the 95% confidence level. Party support percentages have been rounded up or down to whole numbers, except those less than 4.5%, which are reported to one decimal place. The data has been weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level. The sample for mobile phones is selected by random dialling using probability sampling, and the online sample is collected using an online panel. Undecided voters, non-voters and those who refused to answer are excluded from the data on party support. The results are a snapshot in time of party support, and not a prediction.
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