Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern has endorsed Labour just days out from the general election on Saturday.
Speaking on a Facebook live from the United States, Dame Jacinda said it's been a "deliberate decision" not to be very vocal during the election campaign so she could focus on her work at Harvard University.
"I felt that when I left, or made the decision to leave politics, that part of that decision really needed to be to hand over the political mantle to others and to the wonderful team I had the privilege of working alongside in the Labour Party," she said.
"Having said that though, I would hate for anyone to think that simply because I have removed myself from political debate that I no longer have an opinion."
Dame Jacinda said she has "no hesitation" in sharing her opinion and believes child poverty will get worse if National wins the election.
"In the last six years, we've made a lot of gains, we've started to see child poverty track in the direction we need it to. It is not a given that if Labour is no longer in government that will stay the same, in fact, we know it won't," she said.
"So if you believe in continuing to reduce child poverty then it's a simple decision and Labour is the party continuing to promote that."
Dame Jacinda said her opinion to voters is to "think about the future" and urged them to "keep it simple".
"If you voted for me in 2017, then thank you for that, but that also means you were probably voting for issues like poverty, climate change, inequality and housing and the Labour Party has had two terms in office long enough to make progress, not long enough to finish the job and our country needs them to finish the job. So I would encourage you to really look again to those simple principles and vote for that."
Dame Jacinda said she worked with both National leader Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
She said Hipkins deserves the support of New Zealanders as he is in politics for them.
"I know Chris Hipkins as a dad, I know him as a friend, I know him as a minister, I know him as a person, I can hand on heart tell you what he says is true," she said.
"He for decades has been driven in politics for one simple driving purpose, through the good times and the bad, and that is people. He is there because he is in it for you and I know that to be true. So I just wanted to acknowledge my friend, the current Prime Minister, the leader of the Labour Party Chris Hipkins. He's a good person and he does deserve your support. "
Dame Jacinda's endorsement of Hipkins and Labour comes just days after former Prime Minister Sir John Key gave his support for National.
The former Prime Minister took to social media last Thursday urging New Zealanders to party vote National to avoid waking up on October 15 in "limbo land".
Sir John said messy coalition discussions could send the cost of living even higher.
"The economic situation isn’t dissimilar to 2008 when my government came in and guided New Zealand through the Global Financial Crisis.
"If there’s one team with the competence to steer New Zealand through tough economic times again, it’s Chris Luxon and his National team."
It comes as the Guardian Essential New Zealand poll showed the momentum has swung in Labour's direction just three days out from election day. But it's still not enough to get them back into Government.
The poll showed the left bloc of Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori would be on 55 seats and the right bloc of National-ACT would be on 54 seats. New Zealand First would hold the balance of power with 11 seats.
