Inflation Main Voter Concern By Far

NZ votes on Saturday and polls continue to show that there is likely to be a change of government after 6 years of Labour and that the party could post its worst result. An Ipsos poll shows that cost of living, crime, healthcare and housing remain the key issues concerning voters and are all areas where the government has been perceived to have underperformed. As a result, the survey shows that people believe the opposition Nationals are best able to deal with these concerns but Labour has narrowed the gap.

• The Ipsos NZ Issues Monitor reported by RNZ shows that people’s main concerns are unchanged with cost of living at 62%, crime +1pp to 37%, healthcare +1pp to 32%, housing +1pp 31% and the economy & petrol prices (+3pp) at 24%.
• The government’s performance rating rose 0.2pp to a still lacklustre 4.7/10 after a high of 7.6 in 2020 when the last election was held and Labour received 50% of the vote.
• Polls suggest that a National/ACT partnership may not be enough to form a majority government and that they will need to negotiate with NZ First. There was significant focus on their willingness to negotiate in the last debate held yesterday with the sentiment expressed implying a desire by all parties to respect the vote and not hold up governance.