January Morgan Poll out and its great news for the right, and bye bye Cindy

In New Zealand: New Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon boosts support for National to 35%; now ahead of Labour on 33% Share This Link on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on RedditEmail To February 07 2022 Finding No. 8892 Country: Support for National has now overtaken Labour for the first time since 2019 New Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon has again boosted support for the main Opposition National in only his second month in charge with support rising 3.5% points to 35% in January. Support for National has now increased 8.5% points since Luxon took over the leadership at the end of November 2021 and has now overtaken Labour for the first time since October 2019. Support for a potential National/ Act NZ coalition government is now at 48.5% and clearly ahead of the current Labour/ Greens government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on 43.5%. Although support for National increased for a fourth straight month the increase in January came at the expense of fellow right-leaning party Act NZ for which support fell 5% points to 13.5% to its lowest since August 2021. Support for the Maori Party increased 1.5% points to 2.5%. In contrast, support for New Zealand’s Labour/Greens ‘coalition’ government was down 0.5% points to 43.5% in January – the fourth straight month of declines for the government. Labour support dropped 2.5% points to only 33% to the lowest since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took office in late 2017 while support for the Greens increased 2% points to 10.5%. A small minority of 5.5% of electors support other minor parties outside Parliament with support for New Zealand First up 0.5% points to 2.5%, The Opportunities Party up 0.5% points to 1.5% and support for the New Conservative Party up 0.5% points to 1% in January. This latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll on voting intention was conducted by telephone – both landline and mobile – with a New Zealand-wide cross-section of 951 electors during January. Electors were asked: “If a New Zealand Election were held today which party would receive your party vote?” Of all electors surveyed 7%, up 1% points, did not name a party. New Zealand Government Confidence Rating jumps 8.5pts to 106.5 in January The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating increased by 8.5pts in January to 106.5 to return to positive territory after one month below the neutral level for 100. Although it is unusual to see the Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating increase when support for the governing parties is in decline the rise in January comes after a significant decline during the last year, and even just the last few months. The Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating is now down 46.5pts from a year ago in January 2021 (153) and down 18.5pts from just September 2021 (125). These declines match a softening in support for the Government during this period and the small rise in January is likely closely related to the course of the pandemic, and opening up, rather than Government policy changes in January. In January, 48.5% (up 6% points) of electors said New Zealand was ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to 42% (down 2.5% points) who said New Zealand was ‘heading in the wrong direction’. The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Rating for New Zealand was down 0.6pts to 97.7 and is now below the latest Consumer Confidence figure in Australia of 99.9 on Jan. 31 – Feb. 6, 2022 which is now slowly recovering after a breakout of the highly contagious Omicron variant during January.