Dr Bryce Edwards, director of VUW's Democracy Project, had this to say about the latest polls on Government performance - "Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls."
The sum of the polls, however, (see table) shows government to be in a relatively secure position, and the Opposition to be in deep water.
The Talbot Mills, Roy Morgan and IPOS polls showed Government to be less secure than the overall results suggest.
On performance and whether the country was heading in the right or wrong direction the polls were uncomplementary: The Taxpayers' Union showed that, after a brief "right" start, in March the scale had tipped to negative. More people disapproved of government than approved. IPOS's score of 4.5 out of 10 had 37% of those polled signalling poor perforrmance, the highest since 2017, and Talbot Mills showed 40% in the right direction, down 3% since February. and 48% in the wrong direction, up 7% since February.
On the preferred PM question National did even worse. Talbot Mills showed Luxon on 24%, down 3, and Labour's Hipkins close behind on 23%. The Taxpayers' Union result for Luxon was similar, but the scores for his deputies, Act's Seymour and NZ First's Peters, were up. It was thought that their strong performance overshadowed that of Luxon and contributed to his poor result. The exposure of Luxon's non-declaration of his housing assets would also not have helped his public image.
The public's main concerns (IPOS poll) were inflation and the cost of living, 59%, minus 3%, followed by housing 33%, up 2%, Hospitals and health care 33%, plus 1%, the Economy 25%, plus 1%, and crime, law and order 27%, down an astonishing 10%. The attention to divisive issues such as the Treaty of Waitangi and the Māori Housing Authority by the Government's coalition parties would appear not to have helped goverment's image.
It's a long way to go to the next election, time enough for Luxon to improve his image as a leader and for National's policies to show results. It's time also when both Labour and the Greens can improve their images and offer the country a genuinely different set of policies to those being pursued by Government.
If National were to move to the right, influenced by its coalition parties or remain a centre-right-party, and Labour were to move to the left instead of adopting its curent middle of the road position, the country would have a real choice at the next election.
-- ACW
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