National's Christopher Luxon has burst onto the scene with 17.8 percent as preferred Prime Minister - not a bad show for his first poll as leader.
When you compare Luxon's first Preferred Prime Minister poll as leader with Judith Collins' first as leader back in late 2020 - 14.6 percent - and Simon Bridges' 9 percent, Luxon looks pretty good.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and former Prime Minister Sir John Key are the ones he'll want to be compared with.
When Ardern took over as Labour leader, her preferred Prime Minister result was 26.3 percent, while Key debuted on 24 percent.
National is seeking a stretch of smooth sailing - and hoping to pick up a few more voters - after four years in a leaky boat.
"I'm new to Parliament, I'm the new leader - it's a big job interview, I guess, for the next year-and-a-half before the election and people will get to know me over time," Luxon told Newshub.
Luxon is definitely National's best bet. He seems to have turned the Titanic around - refloated it even. People appear to like him more than his predecessors - his caucus included - so the knives are down.
And Luxon is reaping rewards for them, with centre-right voters heading home from their fling with the ACT Party, which 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.
We saw the same thing happen when Ardern took over Labour in 2017. She scooped votes back from the Greens and New Zealand First though she added 9 percentage points to the Labour Party vote.
Luxon has only managed half that - up 4.4 points, despite that 8 point drop over at ACT.
The Government's border reopening announcement last week saved Labour from a bad poll.
There is more on this to come. The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll asked the public some specific questions about the Government's preparedness for Omicron, and the results are very interesting.
Tune in to Three's AM on Tuesday morning to find out.
The Newshub-Reid Research poll was conducted between 22 January – 4 February 2022 with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
