Labour Poll Sees Little Change

Cark Says Polls Mean “Absolutely Nothing”

Last week, 3 News released a political poll showing support for the Labour Party was unchanged as a result of recent controversy surrounding Chinese house buyers. The poll showed Labour at 31.1 percent, a mere 0.7 percent increase from previous polls.

The party has come under fire in recent weeks following its release of data concerning Auckland house buyers with Chinese last names. Labour housing spokesperson Phil Twyford claimed the data proved that foreign buyers from China were prominent in the Auckland housing market. Twyford and the wider party were accused of being racist as a result.

The poll collected last week showed support from 14 to 22 July, which meant the impact of Labour’s housing policy would have likely set in with voters. The risky move has proven to have had little impact.

The poll also brought bad news for the leadership, showing Andrew Little has fallen behind NZ First leader, Winston Peters, as the second most preferred prime minister. Little dropped 1.4 points to 10.2 percent. 

Despite the small decrease in voter support for Little, the Labour caucus remains adamant he is the right person to lead the party. Labour MP and spokesperson for economic development David Clark said Little is “doing a fantastic job”. On top of this, he said, there has been a “gradual trend” of increasing support for Labour over the last year.

Clark rejected claims that the poll reflected poorly on Labour, saying the polls were “all within the margin of error … the polls by themselves mean absolutely nothing”. 

The polls, which are collected by market research company Reid Research, have a margin of error of 3.1 percent on either side of every poll figure. Both Labour’s party support increase of 0.7 percent and Andrew Little’s preferred prime minister decrease of 1.4 percent were well within the 3.1 margin.

This article first appeared in Issue 18, 2015.
Posted 11:38am Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Henry Napier.