NZ Election 2020: Labour, National see support drop in new poll, ACT jumps

A new TVNZ poll shows both major parties' support has dropped since the network's last poll, while ACT has jumped to an impressive 7 percent.

The TVNZ-Colmar Brunton poll has Labour on 48 percent (down 5), National sitting at 31 percent (down 1), ACT on 7 (up 2), the Greens at 6 percent (up 1), and New Zealand First on 2.

In regard to New Zealand's preferred Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern is at 54 percent, Judith Collins is at 18 percent, and both David Seymour and Winston Peters are on 2 percent.

On this poll, Labour could govern alone with 62 seats. New Zealand First wouldn't get into Parliament if it didn't win an electorate seat.

New Zealand First would also be out on the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll from late July. 

That poll showed National diving to 25.1 percent and Labour sitting pretty on 60.9 percent. The Greens were at 5.7 percent, New Zealand First were below the threshold on 2 percent and ACT was up to 3.3 percent. 

With that 60.9 percent, Labour would get 77 seats in the House - far more than the 61 required to have a majority. National would be down to 32, the Greens would have seven and ACT four. New Zealand First, without an electorate seat, would be out of Parliament. 

That same poll showed Ardern on 62 percent as preferred Prime Minister, ahead of Collins on 14.6 percent and former National Party leader Simon Bridges on 4.5 percent. 

The election - scheduled to take place on October 17 - is now less than four weeks away.

The first of the televised debates is taking place later on Tuesday night. You can catch live updates of that here.

Parties' will also be putting forward their economic plans at the ASB Great Debate. Live updates of that can be found here.