By Duncan Garner
The National Government may have had a messy week, but it is Labour that is on the slide and in real trouble in our latest
3 News Reid Research poll.
The news for Labour leader Phil Goff goes from bad to worse – he is also going backwards in the preferred Prime Minister rankings.
This poll will be a bitter blow for Goff – a year into his job as opposition leader and he is struggling to get any sort of traction whatsoever.
National has jumped almost two points to 59.9 – a return to the high it registered in the 3 News Reid Research February poll.
Labour has dropped two to 27, a return to its February low.
The Greens have dropped marginally, while the Maori Party has bounced back up to 2.4.
The other minor parties are struggling.
ACT is up ever so slightly to 1.7, NZ First has a few diehard fans left, Jim Anderton’s Progressives have three voters out of 1,000 and poor old Peter Dunne has none.
In the preferred Prime Minister stakes Key is in another stratosphere – up 4.2 at 55.8 percent. Helen Clark, in New York, is still second at 8.2 percent, Goff has dropped to 4.7 percent, and only just ahead of Winston Peters at 3 percent.
But it is Labour and Goff who now face the biggest challenge. He and his party have slogged it out all winter for little return, and some of his MPs may privately be asking, ‘is he right for the job?’
Key was treated like a celebrity in New York, but back down to earth, he has hardly run his Government with army precision this week.
The scrap over the Rugby World Cup TV rights was a debacle, and his ministers Murray McCully, Bill English, Jonathan Coleman and Gerry Brownlee, looked incompetent.
3 News then revealed National MP Melissa Lee owed $80,000 to NZ on Air.
It got worse – ACC levies are going up, but the Government forgot to muster the numbers to pass the law.
It looked like a train wreck, but Key and National remain overwhelmingly popular – nudging 60 percent.
Tonight’s poll result gives National 74 seats in Parliament and Labour just 33.
Goff and his party are going backward.
For Goff personally, he is still behind Helen Clark, and in a different race to Key.
This poll is a bonus for Key – but he may want to blindfold some of his Ministers and send them to boot camp to lift their performance.
However, he must take some responsibility too – and keep a closer eye on his team in future.
3 News
Duncan Garner has blogged about the 3 News Reid Research results, and you can read his entry here.