Labour leader Chris Hipkins is describing a recent poll result, that saw the incumbent governing party fall to its lowest point since 2019, as "disappointing".
It pulled in just 31 percent of support in the latest Talbot Mills poll while National soared to 36 percent. The right bloc also had its biggest lead on the left since 2017.
Hipkins, speaking from Lithuania where he's attending a NATO meeting, said he's received the message from the New Zealand public.
"Any poll result like that is disappointing but it is real, and I take it seriously," he told reporters.
"I know the last few months have been a bit messy for the Government.
"We really need to return our laser-like focus to the issues that New Zealanders care about."
Hipkins also suffered a six-point drop in the preferred Prime Minister rankings down to 32 percent. But National leader Christopher Luxon also fell a point to 21 percent.
Speaking with AM on Wednesday, Luxon said he was hoping his personal approval rating would change as the election campaign goes on.
"I think when you're the leader of the Opposition… you don't have nearly as many opportunities in a media sense - that's what's so good about the campaign coming up," Luxon said. "If you think back [to] where we were, just 18 months ago when I took over the leadership, people were writing us off with no chance of winning an election in 2023.
A series of polls have said we can form a Government and that's the most important thing.""
Asked by AM co-host Isobel Ewing if New Zealanders know who he is, the National leader said people were getting to know him.
"They'll continue to get to know me through the campaign where the opportunities become more equal and there's more oxygen for us to tell our story about how to take New Zealand forward."
He went on to say National was focused "on one poll that matters - and it's October 14".
Also responding to the poll, Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter noted the election was still three months away. The poll had the Greens on 8 percent but Labour's result would leave the left bloc well short of being able to form a Government.
"I'm really focused on the campaign and I think it will change the outcome of the election," Genter told AM Early.
Meanwhile, political commentator Josie Pagani told RNZ's Morning Report Hipkins' response to the poll was "absolutely brilliant".
"The poll does tell you that people feel Labour isn't necessarily focusing on the things that matter to them… If you look at where Labour's been in the last few months, it's all been focused on this conga-line of crises, hasn't it?"
Since Hipkins took over as Prime Minister earlier this year, his Cabinet has been plagued by ministerial scandals. Before allegations of aggressive behaviour towards staff emerged against Kiri Allan earlier this month, Stuart Nash was sacked for sharing confidential Cabinet information; Meka Whaitiri abandoned Hipkins' Labour Party for Te Pāti Māori; Michael Wood was forced to resign as a minister after failing to declare conflicts of interest; and Education Minister Jan Tinetti was ordered by the Privileges Committee to apologise to Parliament for negligence.
