National Party climbs closer to record high in latest NZ opinion poll...

National Party climbs closer to record high in NZ opinion poll...

PM John Key

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Mark MitchellThe National Government's support has risen to near record levels while Labour's polling has fallen below the 30 per cent mark in a 3News poll reported last night.



According to the Reid Research poll, National's support was up 2.9 percentage points to 57.5 per cent, not far off the record 60 per cent it hit in the same poll two years ago.



Labour was down 3.8 percentage points to 27.1 per cent.



The Greens were down half a point to 7.7 per cent, NZ First down half a point to 2.8 per cent.



The Maori Party was up marginally at 2.5, and Act picked itself up off the floor, rising 1.1 points to 1.7 per cent, while United Future remained the cellar dweller at 0.2 per cent.



Labour also fared poorly by the preferred prime minister measure. As Prime Minister John Key rose a touch to 52.4 per cent, Phil Goff remained at 6.8 per cent.



Commenting on the result, Mr Key told 3News National was "very focused on the issues that matter to New Zealanders - they are in relation to the economy, the earthquake, law and order".



"The contrast between us and Labour is that Labour are focused on themselves."



Mr Goff, who in the past month has had to contend with the Darren Hughes affair, rumours of a leadership coup, and Damien O'Connor's criticism of the party's list selection process, acknowledged it had been "a couple of hard weeks in politics".



The poll questions 1000 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 per cent.



Acknowledgements: Adam Bennett/ MSN News

Tide could be turning against The Tories...

Knowing that the latest opinion poll was going to show some movement betwwen the Labour and National - 8pts is pretty significant in my book - the Tories have really cranked up its attack on Winston Peters. Quite frankly, the public couldn't give a damn.

Is the 8pt movement an indication of the real political opinion in New Zealand at a particular point in time when opinion is not going to change the status quo but rather a proverbial kick up Labour's backside? Or is it showing the tide is slowly going out for National? They have to do a bit better than sending a few emails out showing so called policies(regurgitated 2005 policies). Privatising ACC so they can get hold of part of its 6 billion dollar reserves for tax cuts in 2009?

Still 12 weeks or so until the elections; thats rather a long time in politics, especially for a party without real, new policies! The National Party is hoping it can continue sleepwalking to victory with the media doing its work for them. It will take more than blatant negativity to get National back on the treasury benches it was kicked off for abusing its power in the 1990's. It will take positive reasons to reelect them back. They don't have a natural coalition partner in the MMP scenario, labour has at least two.

Labour has been a good government but has been embroilled in controversy because of media obsession with some of its minority social legislation which hasn't hurt New Zealanders one iota. IE: anti-smacking legislation has not resulted in good parents being dragged before the courts. Legislation that was only passed with National's help, recall! My money is on a another Labour coalition!!