Voters approval for leaders of National and Labour dropping significantly – poll
A new poll shows voters approval for the leaders of the two most major parties is dropping significantly.
The latest 1News Verian poll has Prime Minister Christopher Luxon with an overall approval rating of -14, down from -7 in March. Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins scored +1, still in the positives, but a 15 point drop from a result earlier this year.
The most recent round of polling brought about the usual drop in approval for Luxon and Chippy with focus on Chippy and the inevitable chatter about whether Chippy stand down.
I get asked privately what my thoughts are about Chippy’s ability to deliver the Left meaningful policy more than any other question, and I’ll tell you all what I tell them.
Look.
I’vs been covering politics for over 3 decades and I don’t for one second think Chippy is the socialist hero who will bring about the Marxist Utopia, but I have had the good fortune to speak with him privately over the years and have watched him closely.
I honestly hand on heart think Chippy is a good bugger, who is in public service for the right reasons and when they close those doors at the top table and make decisions behind our backs, I believe he is in there making calls that benefit the common good, not vested interests.
He is a decent bloke who has actual values.
I don’t for one second think he would have banned kids books with Māori words.
I don’t think for one second he would have ignored the Climate Commission and created a pro-business lobby group to lower methane levels.
I don’t for one second believe he would have given one fucking cent to the tobacco industry.
I don’t believe he would have pushed ahead with draconian welfare sanctions.
I don’t think he would have replaced school lunches with the shit they get now.
I don’t believe Chippy would have embarked upon an anti-Māori, anti-Treaty, anti-beneficiary, anti-worker, anti-renter, anti environment agenda that strangles the common good for his donors interests.
I just don’t.
Chippy has actual values and I believe a decent person with real values should be the main qualifier for our top job.
He has the talent and executive leadership skills to be PM and he deserves the shot for the 2026 election.
That’s not to say his policies can’t be enhanced significantly from the Green Party and te Pati Māori, but as a stable, fair and positive force, he is far preferable to the naked malice of National, ACT and NZF.
I stand with Chippy 🫡 ✊
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While you are probably correct the only reason I can see for keeping Hipkins is to increase the vote of The Greens & TMP which will allow them to push Labour into the sort of changes required to improve society for all. The captains call he made when he was in control and the lack of any strong push-back against the decisions that you describe has me thinking that he is unlikely to rectify any of this government’s mistakes in a hurry.
Yep
I agree that Chris Hipkins has the necessary credentials and moral values to be PM, and furthermore, could prove to be one of NZ’s best. I believe he’s fully aware of our expectations. With the support of his party, plus ‘compromises’ with Greens and TPM [democracy], this could be the salvation of NZ which is fast slithering down a very dangerous, slippery slope, especially considering the huge number of ‘dumb choices’ this CoC has made. So when the time comes NZ will be informed of the agreed, united policies and the benefits. Whatever ensues next election, it COULD NEVER BE AS BAD as the over-confident, ill-equipped, lying, corrupt mob we currently have in power. In essence, NZ needs a ‘decent bloke’ not an egotistical bunch of show ponies.
I totally agree that Chippy is a great bloke. Genuine, honest, hard working – we ALL saw that during Covid how Grant Robertson and Chippy, especially, stepped up to help Jacinda weather the very large and potentially dangerous unknown that we forget represented what we knew of Covid back then.
Sadly, I can’t agree that he should necessarily continue as the best person to lead the Labour Party. People, including me, see him as an excellent politician but, I dare to say, not as someone possessing that very rare and important talent of being able to INSPIRE – a necessity for the top job. Jacinda had it and it was strengthened in her through Grant and Chippy who were at the top of Jacinda’s TEAM through the various challenges they all had. My eye has been on Kieran McAnulty as someone with all of Chippy’s strengths but, I would suggest, a better ability to judge what, when and how to say when interacting with the public. I suggests he has a greater ability to INSPIRE. To be fair, I’d be happy if either led the Party and hopefully the country but I feel Kieran would likely be more successful during the next election. He’s great in Parliament and fearlessly articulate in fighting his corner. I’m happy for others to convince me my instincts are wrong 🙂
Your instincts are wrong. Enough of an argument? Willy Jackson, that’s the guy. Chippy no good. Got it.
I agree 100% too.
Even though I am a greenie.
Chippy speaks to everyone in a tone and with language that is clear and precise he is the next PM
Mildly better than Luxon isn’t much of a recommendation.
Way better than the mongrel Luxon and his band of disgusting people .
Labour isn’t short of questionable characters themselves. Just look at extremists like Ingrid Leary paid by the yanks to spread hatred against Chinese people.
You have proof of that
MK You are on your way to being the grinch that stole Christmas. What about offering good ideas when you post from now on. A change of tactic. Your other approach of carping criticism is useless even if you are right; we must make wise analysis and work with what there is at this point in time. Even if we were unlucky enough to get picked for responsible political positions we wouldn’t be able to carry out
any but some of the good and needed policy.I
The Left or its remains, have been painted into a corner and have to sit and think then move sideways. We can’t magic up what you would like. To think along some new lines I suggest we all think about the musical Chess – it’s very political and also personal. Great I reckon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qezfpc09gE
Rice and Anderson talking about getting Chess off the ground.
Tim Rice said he was inspired to write it after a 1970s Chess game. What can we be inspired to do after all that has happened to our country and us in past decades?
Political no doubt and this covers the tension.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvrbP848Sg 1.54.56
Abba and the Cold War: the History of Chess the Musical
Yeah – I want to see constructive economic policy that will begin to reverse the decades of damage we owe to Lange’s suckling of the viper Roger Douglas.
Cosmetic virtue signals won’t cut it.
So why replace Chippy now?
Does nobody remember the mid 1990s when members of the Labour party despaired of winning an election with Helen Clark as leader? The attempted coup to replace her with Phil Goff?
Helen Clark goes on to be prime minister from 1999 to 2008.
Does nobody remember 2005 when ACT came close to its well-deserved extinction? Just Rodney Hide and Heather Roy.
Then like a malignant cancer it revived again to 11 seats.
Fuck the Approval ratings. In the long run they do not prove anything.
That’s Lino’s methodology: Just relax back in the LAZYBOY and wait for the NATSOS to screw up as per usual then swan in effortlessly for another term. Show disdain for those who want straight answers from them: 1. A CGT 2. A WEalth tax. 3. respect and adopt policies from smaller allied parties. Then once in do nothing and no reform. During Cindy’s term they did very little. LINO are sorted too and complacent. Just let the NATsos get in again and emigrate if possible.
You would expect me to agree and I do! Despite the constant “where’s the policy” and “TPM danger” crap, Chippy is an experienced leader who is running rings around the hopeless Luxon in the House. He will keep Labour’s powder dry until near the end of the year as he has said so often. November Congress fast approaching which is when policy remits are debated by members towards developing Labour’s manifesto for next year’s election. Meanwhile the best the National Party can do is wheel out the horrid and discredited Judith Collins in an attempt to undermine the mega strike this coming Thursday.
Just keep reminding Collins of the Oravida saga, that should be like the equivalent of daylight to a vampire.
I see potential Chris Hipkins that perceptions will become labors version of Keith holyoke very similar parallels
Under pressure he has demonstrated no ability to resist adopting authoritarianism <>. Vote labour for party vote, of course, because they are not National; but he has already shown himself to be as obliging a fascist as Keir Starmer, and we can only expect more from him as the Utope class demands the push for digital control, id, i, currency, to protect their system and hoarded wealth from the masses.
The obvious fact is that Labour, in opposition, should be surging. The economy is in dire straits: inflation has eroded household budgets, rents and mortgages are crushing, and public services are stretched to breaking point. National, presiding over this mess, ought to be deeply vulnerable. Yet Labour’s lead, if it exists at all, is marginal.
The reason is simple: voters do not believe Labour offers a genuine alternative. Having governed for six years before being turfed out, Labour’s record is one of timidity, broken promises, and a refusal to confront entrenched wealth and power. Its leadership continues to speak the language of fiscal responsibility and market discipline, as though these were universal truths rather than ideological commitments. And its supporters continue to hold up the centrist politics of former Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as something the country should aspire to. In doing so, Labour has signalled to the electorate that nothing fundamental will change if it becomes the government in 2026.
So the electorate is in a state of malaise. The two main parties are locked in a race to the bottom, each incapable of inspiring more than a third of voters. The minor parties nibble at the edges, but none can credibly claim to offer a transformative alternative. The public, sensing this, responds with apathy.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2025/10/new-zealands-crisis-of-political.html
Great summary of the situation of what Labour has to give under present leadership. Despite her resounding win there was little major change of direction to show that Labour could solve problems differently to National.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/inflation-hits-3-power-and-rates-do-the-damage/QX5SZVNWABCXZPBNMG2XE4JSVE/
The National coalition is in Government. Today they bring you the above. Despite Nationals resounding victory and the promise to make things better they have done the complete opposite. When Labour was voted in under Ardern there was no carnage like there is now.
Inflation has skyrocketed, unemployment has skyrocketed, the cost of living has skyrocketed, record number of kiwis heading overseas, wages have gone backwards and a mass protest is set to take place because of critical underfunding. Health, education, police and fire protection has fallen by the wayside. meanwhile smoking regulations and gun regulations have been slashed, landlords have been given tax exemptions and big trucking firms continue to get favours.
And today National continue on their journey of beating kiwis with a big stick…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/video/herald-now/job-seekers-face-new-weekly-reporting-and-training-rules-from-today/XAT4XZOQLTMJWQ3JMNZDON23EY/
Remind me again how job seekers are expected to pay those record electricity costs that National has imposed on them again?
That is a great summary as to why voting National in 2026 is a vote for the corporates and not the people.
Yes.
There’s more to say on this topic. Firstly, where did being a humane and caring PM protect them from the spite and threats from the RW people who should have known better. And Jay11 pls don’t refer to Jacinda as Cindy – that’s ignorant? I too have a lot of time for Kieran McAnulty, and Willie Jackson but in Oct 2023 Kieran believed he wasn’t ready. Hipkins is a seasoned and well controlled MP. Whatever the outcome Donald Duck would be a far better PM than Luxon and even Humpty Dumpty would shine. It would be impossible to imagine we could scrape the bottom of the barrel twice in a row so that rules out most of the CoC politicians. While we are on this ‘Luxon issue’ let’s talk about his “bottom feeder” remark? I believe NZ’s main problem is the “top feeders”, those who don’t pay their IRD dues, amass debts, set up trusts etc. to protect their money, while living the life of Riley, and leaving hundreds of contractors out of pocket or facing extreme hardship. IRD needs to make sure no company is allowed to accumulate outstanding debt to them, and contractors – try tough love! These “top feeders” know exactly how to rort the system and simply go bankrump with more than likely hidden overseas’ bank accounts and expensive jewellery etc. – makes Luxon’s bottom feeders look morally sound.
I honestly hand on heart think Chippy is a good bugger, Chippy has actual values and I believe a decent person with real values should be the main qualifier for our top job.
I THINK WE ALL KNOW THAT – But they are afraid of their own shadow.
But this should not be a list of the shit that those others have done to us. The fact is Labour have only ever partially reversed some of the appalling things that the other have done. And there are very few things that Labour have said they will reverse over the past two years.
I put my money s said about reversing
I put my money on the Greens and TPM!
Chippy isn’t National/Act but he certainly isn’t working class Labour either.
And it doesn’t logically follow that simply because he isn’t the former that means that he’s the best person to lead Labour.
Norman Kirk was the last leader that honestly represented Labour’s foundational principles.
The working class died with Jim Bolger et al. Him and Richardson decimated the unions hence our low wage economy,hence the loss of so many industries that kept workers gainfully employed,such as the freezing works,the railways,car manufacturing etc.etc. So please don’t put Bolger on a high pedestal as far as the working class are concerned. If Chris Hipkins isn’t working class what would you call Luxon .
I thought we were discussing Hipkins.
What part of Not my government was not discussing Chris Hipkins again?
This is such delusions. NZ was broke because of the very things you cherish.
Roger Douglas saved NZ. In the 1990s we boomed.
We need someone to do another Roger Douglas to fix our issues now.
The lot of you should watch this Disney vid when troubling your tiny brains about a new leader who is fit for the job in every way. Huh, once they have gone to political finishing school in UK USA or Canada, they are Finished.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds2LbtOX7fY
When you wish upon a star; (with lyrics seeing you haven’t the imagination to think up your own. – I’m being a bit negative aren’t I!)