Jacinda Ardern is still far and away the preferred Prime Minister, up 1.6 points to 43.3 percent in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll.
National's Christopher Luxon has burst onto the scene with 17.8 percent - not a bad show for his first poll as leader. Meanwhile ACT's David Seymour is losing his personal shine on 7.9 percent, down 4 points.
So, National is back on the rise - but stealing all its votes from its buddies.
When asked if he was the saviour of the National Party, Luxon told Newshub: "Positive and encouraging, but as I've said many times before, we've got a lot of work to do over the coming year."
While he's steadied the sinking ship, Luxon has a hell of a journey ahead to take on Labour.
"The view is New Zealanders are not as well ahead as they were 12 months ago and that's really where our focus has got to be - and if we do that job right, make the case strongly to the New Zealand people, propose ideas along the way, ultimately we'll be seen as an alternative government come 2023," Luxon said.
But right now he's just sticking his oar in his mate's voter base. ACT is down 8 points in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll on 8 percent, while National is on 31.3 percent, up 4.4 points.
"What's important is that the centre-right overall needs to grow," says ACT leader David Seymour. "That's what a lot of people will be worried about with this poll."
He's gutted.
"We have to take polls seriously and listen to people and how we get back to what were record levels of support for ACT."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is thanking the heavens voters have stuck with her through the COVID-19 response. Despite the rapid antigen test rigmarole and all of the border trauma, Labour's vote is holding up. The party is comfortably in front on 44.3 percent, up 1.6 points.
"I am pleased to see that continuing show of confidence," Ardern told Newshub. "For me, poll results like that I think are a sign of people's confidence in our plan."
The Newshub-Reid Research poll was conducted between 22 January – 4 February 2022 with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
