With just two sleeps to go until election day, a new poll has revealed more concerning signs for National, with an increase in Kiwis thinking leader Christopher Luxon is performing poorly.
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll asked voters what they thought of the performance of the leaders of the two largest political parties.
The results, shared exclusively on Thursday morning on AM by Newshub Political Editor Jenna Lynch, shows 51.4 percent of people think Labour leader Chris Hipkins is performing well on the campaign trail, a boost of eight points since the last poll and just 30.4 percent think he is performing poorly, down 1.7 points.
On the other hand, the results reveal 42.3 percent think Luxon is performing well, down 1.3 points and 37.7 percent believe he is performing poorly, up 4.8 points.
This has raised questions about whether or not National's campaign has peaked too early and what errors they've made along the way.
Lynch believes the "major, major strategic" error National made in its campaign was reluctantly saying it would pick up the phone to Peters if it needed him to win the election.
"Probably when National looks back at this campaign, their major, major strategic error was that moment which they gave Winston Peters life, ruling him in, giving voters the licence, the permission to vote for Winston Peters because he [Luxon] said he will pick up the phone to him, he will make the call and he will form a government with him if he has to," Lynch said.
Since National made the announcement at the end of last month, Lynch said their messaging has been "absolute panic pants"
Since then, National has warned voters of an unprecedented second election, taking out newspaper ads warning of uncertainty while also saying a coalition involving National-ACT-New Zealand First would be problematic.
Lynch believes the biggest issue with the campaign of the two major parties has been the amount of "fear" both parties have been using.
"I think the real shame of this election is we've seen both of the major parties lean into the fear strategy rather than the hope strategy," she said.
"The National Party at the end of this campaign have leaned into the fear of both what a Labour government would look like, but also what a government with New Zealand First might look like.
"Labour has gone full fear and has started going if National wins, the public loses. Now we're at a crossroads in New Zealand society. You would think the parties would be able to come up with something hopeful. I mean, maybe I'm a bit of an optimist. Give us something to dream about."
The results follow new figures on Wednesday showing National's slide has continued and the right and left bloc is becoming neck and neck.
The results showed National had plummeted 4.6 points to 34.5 percent while Labour picked up one point to 27.5 percent. Greens continue their impressive polling results up 0.7 to 14.9 percent, ACT has stalled at 8.8 percent while the big winners are New Zealand First and Winston Peters up 1.6 points to 6.8 percent and in the 'kingmaker' position.
This means the left bloc of Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori would get 57 seats, more than the right bloc of National and ACT only getting 54 seats.
This leaves Peters in the 'kingmaker' position with the nine seats New Zealand First has.
Watch the full interview with Jenna Lynch in the video above.
