Christopher Luxon's reputation has come under fire this week, but the National Party leader believes Kiwis still need to get to know him.
The latest political poll may look good for National but when it comes to the performance of its leader it's not looking quite so rosy.
The Newshub Reid-Research poll has found 28.2 percent of those surveyed think he's performed poorly and when it comes to how they described Luxon, that wasn't great either.
Newshub asked in our poll for one word to describe Luxon and the results showed he perhaps has a bigger problem than Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The results showed people aren't necessarily turning off him, but they don't know who he is.
"Don't know", "unsure", "unknown" and "businessman" are up there. Labour's line is also working, with "inexperienced" showing up.
Voters also said he is "learning", "trying", "boring" and "arrogant". A few called him "bald", "rich", "smarmy" and "white".
Luxon told AM on Wednesday he doesn't relate to any of the words that criticise him and thinks Kiwis will get to know him over the next 12 months leading up to the election.
"The way I've come through politics has been really fast to become the leader of the National Party and that's a big thing that people need to get to know me," Luxon told AM co-host Ryan Bridge.
"They're going to do that over the course of the year. It's going to be a big, long job interview and they'll get a sense of what I'm about."
Luxon said he comes with "real-world leadership experience" and offers something different that Labour can't provide.
"I come not as a career politician. I will be different and I think that's a really good thing and what is needed in New Zealand right now."
The poll wasn't kind to Ardern either. The top responses were "good", "caring", and "kind" but "useless" is right up there.
"Great", "empathetic" and "capable" are there too. But alongside them are "incompetent", "fake", "unreliable", "liar", and "evil". A few even went as far as "deceitful" and "dictator".
Luxon said Ardern has "good intentions" but believes the issue facing her and the Government is they're comprised of career politicians.
"They haven't necessarily run things or know how to get things done, and I think that's the real challenge that they're running into now," he said.
"Essentially, New Zealanders are looking at it and saying, look, there's a lot of spin but there's no delivery. The economy is going backwards, healthcare systems are falling apart, our kids aren't going to school. We've got major challenges with the housing crisis. We've got rising levels of crime.
"Those are the outcomes that New Zealanders want to see Governments improve for them, so that's how they get ahead."
Watch the full interview with Christopher Luxon above.
