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Source: ONE News -
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An All Blacks win in Sunday's Rugby World Cup final against the French may have an impact on undecided voters, research shows.
Research from the United States shows parties in government tend to do well after a major sporting victory in their area.
Dr Peter Thompson, a Victoria University media studies senior lecturer, told TV ONE's Breakfast that the research may suggest that National could benefit from an All Blacks win.
"It is inevitable that if you have an election so close to a major sporting event that I think that a victory would probably lighten the public mood."
However, Thompson says he does not think the results will swing the election one way or another.
"But, in terms of the influence on undecided or apathetic voters then a victory could possibly raise the mood and make them broadly more favourable to the incumbent."
Thompson is more concerned that the strong focus on the RWC "could affect the quality of the bureaucratic process".
"To get to grips with some of the complexities of the political issues I think we need more than a couple of week's right before the election."
"I think the euphoria around the World Cup has served really to sideline more serious focus on a range of quite significant issues including the environmental disaster around Tauranga and serious macro-economic issues around the downgrade."
Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully said while an All Blacks win will give Kiwis a lift he does not think it will have a clear political impact.
McCully says he does not think an All Blacks loss will impact the election instead he said the biggest risks lay in the way the event is run and the way New Zealand presented itself to the world. If this went badly this could have the potential to make an impact.
"I've always been very alert to that risk which is why we've been working very hard to make sure that New Zealanders can feel proud about the way in which their country has hosted so many visitors," he told the NZ Herald.
Although there is no clear evidence that the results of Rugby World Cups have had an impact on past elections, the incumbent 1987 Labour Government returned for a second term with an increased majority after New Zealand hosted and won the RWC.
And in 1999 in the same month that the All Blacks were kicked out of the RWC by the French in a heart-breaking quarter-final match the National Party's nine-year-rule ended. But some said they were doomed long before the RWC.
