Google data reveals Christopher Luxon, Chris Hipkins and David Seymour are dominating search interest in political party leaders, while ACT and National are receiving the most interest of the parties.
The data is collated by Google Trends, which is tracking search interest in political parties and their leaders as well as the topics people are interested in and the questions people are asking.
When Newshub looked on Monday afternoon, Luxon and Hipkins, the leaders of the major political parties, were topping the search interest in political leaders.
Over the past fortnight, Luxon received 33 percent of the searches for leaders, compared to 30 percent for Hipkins.
Google's data shows interest in Luxon over the past two weeks is around the highest it has been since he became the National Party leader in November 2021.
Interest in Hipkins is unsurprisingly far below where it was when he became Prime Minister in January, though it is trending upwards from where it was midway through the year.
In third, ACT's David Seymour has received 23 percent of searches. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi has got 5 percent of searches, the Greens co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson have got 4 percent and 3 percent respectively, and then Debbie Ngarewa-Packer with 2 percent.
Looking at search interest in the political parties over the past 14 days, the ACT Party was leading with 24 percent of searches. Interest in the party is currently at its highest since the 2020 election.
Close behind, the National Party received 23 percent of searches, the highest level of interest since Luxon's elevation to leader.
Interestingly, The Opportunities Party - which isn't currently represented in Parliament - was in third, with 13 percent of search interest in parties. It was followed by New Zealand First with 11 percent, Te Pāti Māori with 11 percent, Labour with 7 percent, the Greens with 3 percent and a number of fringe parties with 2 percent.
Google displays how search interest in different parties has changed over the year relative to each other.
National was receiving the most interest at the start of the year, before Labour briefly pipped it around the time of Jacinda Ardern's resignation. Throughout most of the year National and ACT have been at the top of the rankings, followed by either Te Pāti Māori or Labour, and sometimes New Zealand First.
In terms of political topics, while COVID-19 received the most interest at the start of the year, tax has become dominant since July, followed by COVID, education, immigration and crime.
Google also lists some of the top questions asked by users this year. Here are some of those questions and the answers.
When is the NZ Election?
The New Zealand election is being held on October 14, 2023.
Overseas voting for the election begins on September 27, while advance voting begins on October 2.
When was the last election?
The last New Zealand election was in October 2020. The Labour Party, then led by Ardern, won a historic majority with 50 percent of the vote.
How many seats in NZ's Parliament?
There are 120 seats in the Parliament if there is no overhang. To form a Government, a party or parties need to secure 61 or more.
