New poll suggests voters unwavered by Govt Budget as Peters nears Luxon, Hipkins as preferred PM

Author: Adam Pearse,
Publish Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2026, 11:56am

Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins both dipped in the poll's preferred PM ratings while Winston Peters and Chlöe Swarbrick jumped. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Government’s Budget had little impact on voter sentiment, according to a poll which has returned a similar result compared with its previous survey.

However, the latest Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll does point to dips in popularity for Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins.

Minor party leaders saw better returns, including Winston Peters who is six percentage points shy of Luxon.

The poll, which surveyed 1000 people between June 4-8, found Labour had the highest level of support with 32.2%, a slight increase of 0.3 points from the pollster’s last survey in May.

The poll has a margin of error of 3.1%.

National had registered a 0.1 point increase to 30.1%. The Green Party had edged New Zealand First as the party with the third-highest support at 11.5%, an increase of 1.8 points on the last poll.

NZ First had dipped 0.3 points to register at 11.4%. Act had jumped 1.3 points to 7.8% and Te Pāti Māori dropped 1 point to 3.1%, lower than Opportunity which was on 3.2%, up 0.4 points.

The polling was done days after the Government’s Budget, released on May 28.

Regarding seats in the House, the poll results would only cause changes of one to two seats.

It would deliver the same configuration as the May poll; 62 for National, Act and NZ First while Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori had 58.

Both Luxon and Hipkins took a hit to their preferred Prime Minister ratings. The National leader dropped 2.7 points to 18.8% while the Labour leader dropped 1.9 points.

That has seemed to be hoovered up by the minor party leaders. Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick had taken the lion’s share, increasing 2.7 points to 8.1%. Act leader David Seymour jumped 2.4 points to 6.3%.

Both trailed Peters on 12.8%, an increase of 1.2 points on the last poll.

That put Peters just 6 points shy of Luxon, the closest the two have been in this poll since June last year.

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.