Labour MPs are brushing off questions about Jacinda Ardern's leadership as support for the party and the Prime Minister continues to drop.
Ardern's Labour suffered another drop in the polls on Monday, while National remained ahead on 37 percent.
Labour's vote was down two points to 33 percent and, while National had also fallen two points, it would be able to form a Government with fellow right-bloc party ACT (up four points to 11 pct).
Ardern's preferred Prime Minister ranking also dropped to 30 percent, down three points.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon also declined. He was down three points to 22 percent.
ACT Party leader David Seymour climbed two points to 5 percent.
When asked by reporters about the poll on Tuesday morning, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said Ardern was still the preferred PM.
"She's doing an extraordinary job of leading New Zealand and has done - she's the preferred Prime Minister… you do realise that eh?
"We are obviously in a pretty tough time for a lot of New Zealanders in this winter where a lot have been sick, where we do have [the] cost of living issues for a lot of people, but I'm very optimistic that we've got a good programme, we've got unemployment very low, we've got strong investments in infrastructure, health and education."
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson said there were no questions about Ardern's leadership.
"We're not looking at the leader of the party at all," he said. "We've got a great leader and I think we're polling OK. I think we're fine actually, at the moment."
Asked if Labour was deflated by the poll results, Jackson said, "not at all" and it was the Opposition that "should be deflated".
"They might've thought that they would have been about 10 or 15 percent ahead," he said. "We're 14-15 months out from an election - I'm very comfortable with where we're at. I think we're tracking well and [I'm] really proud of our leader."
In an earlier poll by Curia for the Taxpayers' Union in July, National sat at 37 percent - only slightly above Labour's 34.7 percent. That poll was described as "broadly positive" for the left bloc, given the right would not be able to govern without the support of the Māori Party (3.7 pct).
