Support has been registered for a handful of New Zealand’s minor political parties ahead of the election in the latest 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll.
The poll saw support for the New Conservative Party double to 2%, while The Opportunities Party, the Māori Party, and Advance New Zealand are all on 1%. But they’re still a way off the 5% threshold to get into Parliament without winning and electorate seat.
Meanwhile, ACT is leading the minor party race, on 7%.
New Conservative’s policies include tougher prison sentences and repealing what it calls "race-based" government funding.
The party also believes marriage is between a man and a woman and that anything else is civil union.
Party leader Leighton Baker is happy with the poll result.
“It's great, well it's heading in the right direction isn't it and that's what we want,” says Baker.
Meanwhile a number of minor parties saw increases in support.
“You know we can see that there's a growing frustration amongst voters in New Zealand, they feel let down by some of the bigger parties and they don't know where to turn to.”
Appearing for the first time in a 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll is Advance New Zealand. Co-leader Billy Te Kahika says support for their party is growing.
“We're very excited, it's a humble start.
“It's the big thing like being able to call a massive freedoms rally in Auckland with one week's notice and 4000 people turn up for that.”
Repealing the Government’s Covid-19 response law is a key policy for Advance NZ, and other policies are expected to be announced soon.
Te Kahika disagrees with the idea that Advance NZ is a conspiracy party.
“That is the greatest out of date line that people can use on us now.
“We were called the conspiracy party when we said elimination won't work, that the lethality of the disease (Covid-19) wasn't as high as this Government believed it was and now it's all mainstream. It's all mainstream,” he says.
For the Māori Party, polling 1%, the hard election work has been happening for a while. They’ve pledged to increase minimum wage to $25 an hour, among other policies, and to change New Zealand’s name to Aotearoa by 2026.
“Our candidates have been out there since February really going hard,” says co-leader John Tamihere.
Also polling at 1% is The Opportunities Party - with policies like a universal basic income and housing affordability.
They’ve mostly been campaigning on social media.
“It was a little bump on our previous poll which was good to see,” says party leader Geoff Simmons.
“We're currently running second to Labour across the social media platforms in terms of engagement.
“We want to hold house prices and rents stable for a generation to restore affordability.”
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