Chris Hipkins refrains from calling Labour’s 25.9% poll result ‘rogue’

Author: Adam Pearse,
Publish Date: Mon, 7 Sep 2026, 1:21pm

Labour leader Chris Hipkins during his pre-caucus media standup at Parliament,Wellington, New Zealand, September 02, 2026: Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell

Vote 2026

Labour leader Chris Hipkins is not repeating his criticism of an earlier Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, accepting that “polls move around” following his party receiving 25.9% in the pollster’s latest numbers.

This month’s Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, released this morning, had Labour on 25.9% which was the party’s lowest return in that poll since July 2024.

The poll surveyed 1000 people and was conducted between September 1-3, a period which featured a persistent attack campaign from National regarding potential taxes a Labour-led coalition could implement despite Hipkins’ insistence the party would only introduce a targeted capital gains tax.

Labour’s result was down 1.9 points from 27.8% in the August poll. Curia also does National’s internal polling.

Responding to the August poll, Hipkins said his party was “not focused on rogue polls” and was “busy fighting for a country where everyone has the chance to build a better future”.

However, responding to today’s poll, Hipkins did not describe the results as “rogue” and instead said, “polls move around”.

“I’m focused on Labour’s plan to invest in what matters so Kiwis can get ahead.

“There’s a lot of work to do between now and the election, and we’re getting on with it. We’ve announced some great policy focused on supporting Kiwis with the cost of living and investing in our health system.

Today’s poll had National with the largest share of support but still below 30%, dropping two percentage points from last month’s poll to 29%.

The Green Party had received a significant boost of 3.8 points to reach 13.9%. Act had also jumped 3.2 points to 10.5%. New Zealand First had dropped by 0.7 points to 8.4% while Te Pāti Māori had gained 0.5 points to 2%.

Opportunity, which had surpassed 5% in several recent mainstream polls, had fallen back below that threshold to 4.5%, a drop of 1.6 points.

Those numbers translated to National losing one seat in the House to 39 seats when compared to last month’s poll. Labour had also lost one seat to 35.

The Green Party had gained five to reach 18 seats, Act up five to 14, NZ First down one to 11 and Te Pāti Māori up one to three seats.

Given Opportunity had not met the 5% threshold, the eight seats the party was attributed in last month’s poll were reduced to zero.

That seat allocation meant the current coalition parties had 64 seats between them, up three from last month and enough to hold a majority in the House.

The “Opposition bloc”, a combination of Labour, the Greens Te Pāti Māori and Opportunity, had dropped three seats to 56.

In the preferred Prime Minister ratings, both the National and Labour leaders had fallen with Christopher Luxon dropping 2two points to 21.2% but still ahead of Chris Hipkins, who had dropped 2.9 points to 16.9%.

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.