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The Beehive and Parliament - Source: ONE News -
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New Zealanders' confidence in the economy has taken a sharp downturn.
The first ONE News Colmar Brunton opinion poll of the year shows New Zealanders' feelings about the economy are back to where they were in the middle of the recession.
In November last year, 68% of respondents thought the economy would get better this year. That has dropped back to 59% in the February survey.
But the negative sentiment is not rubbing off on the government.
When it comes to the popularity stakes, Prime Minister John Key's performance is top notch.
Opponents have tried to dress him up as the man whose policies will see the rich get richer at the expense of the poor.
But that perception is not reality in the eyes of most voters.
They are still backing National despite the prospect of mining New Zealand's national parks and despite GST rising and the hopes of catching up with Australian incomes falling.
Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard has said he doesn't think New Zealand can catch up with Australia.
Labour must be wondering the same thing about catching up with National's poll ratings.
National is on 54%, Labour 20 points behind on 34%, the Greens dip under the 5% threshold and the Maori Party and Act both hovering around 2%.
Translating that to seats in parliament, National would have 70 and Labour 44. Assuming electorate seats are held, the Maori Party has five seats, Act two and United Future and the Progressives one seat each.
The Greens would be out of parliament on those numbers.
And the numbers are not good for Labour leader Phil Goff either.
Key is the preferred prime minister for about half the country and Goff is well behind on 8%. He is failing to capture the imagination, even among Labour's own supporters.
Clearly the trust factor is heavily with Key.
"We'll keep New Zealand Super going. That'll be all you have to worry about," Key told an elderly woman at a recent event.
And with his poll numbers as steady as these, Key does not have a lot to worry about right now either.
The poll sampled 1,000 and has a margin of error of 3.1%.
