That itself came after the Prime Minister was criticised for his performance at a press conference, during which he said “any action” to stop the Iranian regime would be a “good thing”. He later said he misspoke.
Participants in the poll were asked “have recent events changed your view of Christopher Luxon as National Party leader and Prime Minister?”.
The results show 51% said there had been no change to their views about Luxon, while 38% said their view had changed for the worse, and 10% said for the better.
Looking at those whose view had changed, the results show the direction was more negative. The percentage of those whose view changed “for better” minus those whose changed “for worse” gave a net score of -28.
Men were more likely than women to say their view of Luxon had improved, while women were more likely than men to say their view had worsened.
Asked the same question about Hipkins, 51% of participants also said their view had not changed. The results show 34% said their view had changed for the worse and 15% said for the better.
His net score of -19 was better than Luxon’s -28. Men were more negative towards Hipkins than women, while women were more likely to say they had no change than men.
The issues which have faced the respective leaders haven’t been a dominant theme this week, with the Middle East conflict dominating discussion at Parliament.
The Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll that sparked debate over the Prime Minister’s future was published in early March. It had National on 28.4%, below Labour on 34.4%.
The latest RNZ-Reid Research poll was released yesterday. It had Labour on 35.6%, which was up 0.6 points from its January poll, and National on 30.8%, down 1.1%.
The ConsumerLink poll was through an online panel and then weighed to ensure it matches the national population. It has a sample size of 1000 people and a maximum margin of error of 3.1%.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.