September 18, 2007

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - New Zealand’s governing Labour party has regained some support but remains behind the opposition National party, according to a poll by Roy Morgan International. 48 per cent of respondents would back National in the next legislative election, down 2.5 points since mid-August.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - New Zealand’s governing Labour party has regained some support but remains behind the opposition National party, according to a poll by Roy Morgan International. 48 per cent of respondents would back National in the next legislative election, down 2.5 points since mid-August.

Labour is second with 34 per cent—up three points—followed by the Greens with 9.5 per cent, the Maori Party with three per cent, New Zealand First with 2.5 per cent, ACT with one per cent, United Future with 0.5 per cent, and the Progressives also with 0.5 per cent.

Labour leader Helen Clark has acted as New Zealand’s prime minister since December 1999. In November 2006, Don Brash—who had served as National’s leader since October 2003—announced his resignation and was substituted by finance spokesman John Key.

In the September 2005 ballot, Labour elected 50 lawmakers to the 121-seat House of Representatives, and assembled a coalition government with the Progressives. United Future and New Zealand First agreed to support the administration in confidence and supply votes for three years. National finished second, with 48 legislators.

In the past 16 months, nine non-banking financial institutions have collapsed in New Zealand. On Sept. 12, finance minister Michael Cullen introduced new laws that will require all financial institutions taking deposits to be registered with the central Reserve Bank of New Zealand and to comply with minimum requirements.

Cullen warned that this and other proposed regulations do not intend to be "a quick-fix solution" and added: "I think one of the things it will do very clearly is ensure that risk is priced more accurately. That will tend to reduce the likelihood of the sort of problems we’ve seen over recent times."

Polling Data

If an election were held today which party would receive your party vote?

	Sept. 2	Aug. 12	Jul. 29
National	48%	50.5%	49%
Labour	34%	31%	35%
Greens	9.5%	7%	6%
Maori Party	3%	3%	3%
New Zealand First	2.5%	4%	4%
ACT	1%	1.5%	0.5%
United Future	0.5%	2%	0.5%
Progressives	0.5%	0.5%	0.5%

Source: Roy Morgan International
Methodology: Interviews with 817 New Zealand voters, conducted from Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, 2007. No margin of error was provided.