The top floors of the Beehive as seen from the roof of Parliament House. Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
The latest political poll shows National and ACT could form a government, but the gap between the left and right blocs is closing.
Both major parties have dropped two points in the 1News Verian poll - previously known as the Kantar Public poll - with National on 35 percent and Labour on 33.
Support for ACT is up slightly on 12 percent, the Greens have gained three points to 10 percent, while Te Pāti Māori is on 3 percent.
Those results would give National and ACT 61 seats in Parliament - which is just enough to form a government.
Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori - assuming they won an electorate - would pick up 59, falling short of the 61-seat majority.
In the preferred prime minister stakes, Chris Hipkins has dropped one point to 24 percent and Christopher Luxon is up two on 20 percent.
This latest poll was conducted from 8 to 12 July. In the weeks leading up to that period, Labour's Michael Wood resigned as a minister, Education Minister Jan Tinetti was found to have mislead Parliament and Hipkins led a trade delegation to China.
- National: 35 percent, down 2
- Labour: 33 percent, down 2
- ACT: 12 percent, up 1
- Green Party: 10 percent, up 3
- NZ First: 3 percent, steady
- Te Pāti Māori: 3 percent, up 1
- TOP: 2 percent, up 1
- DemocracyNZ: 1 percent, steady
- Freedoms New Zealand: 1 percent, up 1
- ONE Party: 1 percent, up 1
- Undecided: 12 percent, steady
Preferred PM:
- Chris Hipkins: 24 percent, down 1
- Christopher Luxon: 20 percent, up 2
- David Seymour: 7 percent, steady
- Winston Peters: 2 percent, steady
- Chloe Swarbrick: 2 percent, steady
- Nicola Willis: 1 percent, steady
- Jacinda Ardern: 1 percent, steady
- Marama Davidson: 1 percent, up 1
- Raf Manji: 1 percent, up 1
- James Shaw: 1 percent, up 1
The previous survey by Verian also showed National and ACT could form a government, with a slightly wider gap between the left and right.
National gained three points to 37 percent and Labour dropped one point to 35 percent.
ACT was steady on 11 percent, the Greens dropped four points to seven percent and Te Pāti Māori was down one on two percent.
The results would mean 47 seats for National and 15 for ACT, giving them one more than the 61-seat threshold required to hold half of Parliament.
Labour would have 46 seats, the Greens would get nine, and Te Pāti Māori would have three assuming they won at least one.
The poll contacted 1000 people via mobile phone and online. The maximum sampling error was approximately ±3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Data was weighted to align with Stats NZ population counts for age, gender, region, ethnic identification and education level, 1 News said.