As the National Party remains narrowly ahead of Labour in the latest polling, leader Christopher Luxon says that his party's planned tax cuts would not have the same sharp market reactions the UK's own tax cut proposals had on the pound's value.
The National Party remains the most preferred party in the latest One News Kantar public poll, but Labour has taken a small bite into their advantage.
The poll figures show National remains unchanged on 37 percent support while Labour is up one, to 34 percent.
According to the TVNZ-commissioned poll figures, National and ACT could form a government, sharing 61 of the 120 seats in the house.
While Jacinda Ardern remains steady on 30 percent as the preferred prime minister, Luxon has dipped slightly to 21 percent.
A year out from the 2023 election, Luxon said he was confident in the results.
"I think what's encouraging is we've made great progress over the last nine to 10 months.
"What's really clear in this poll and other polls is people consistently say the country is heading in the wrong direction.
"They are really genuinely worried about the cost-of-living crisis, the rising levels of crime and the health care system that's falling apart."
Luxon's personal popularity as preferred prime minister still trails Ardern, however.
"We don't focus on any individual polls, and they bounce around as you well know within a margin of error," he said, but admitted that "there's more work for us to do as a National Party over the coming year".
'We need to offer tax relief'
Global currency markets are experiencing a lot of volatility, and New Zealand's dollar has fallen to its lowest level since 2020.
"There are winners and losers to it, yes, it's great for our exporters but it's more difficult for our importers and it raises prices that way.
"The big issue is we need a plan to manage inflation, we need to be able to control spending, we need to be able to offer tax relief."
However, the market reaction to the UK's recently announced tax cuts saw the pound drop to an all-time low against the US dollar.
National has said it would take a tax cut plan to the 2023 election and Luxon said that had not changed despite some markets seeing tax cuts as adding to inflation problems.
"The UK is incredibly different from our own plan.
"What you've got in the UK is a more challenged economy, frankly, as a starting point. You've got massive amount of stimulus spending going on and you've got massive wholesale tax change going on as well."
Luxon said National was focused on adjusting tax brackets for inflation, and making sure there was less wasteful spending.
Asked repeatedly by Morning Report if his government would consider borrowing to fulfil its tax cut plans, Luxon said it was a separate issue.
"We're saying very clearly that we think there's a way in which we can give tax relief so that people can keep money in their own pocket."
Borrowing was "a separate issue," he said, and National would come to an election with a fully costed plan and would look hard at cutting spending.
"We're going to go through the spending line by line and make sure it's not wasted and as a result we think we can deliver a much more effective spending that delivers outcomes."
"We think we can give tax relief in a very simple principle which many countries around the world do, which is just inflation-adjusted tax thresholds.
"That's the best way to give people cash in the hand versus rinky-dink cost of living payments being paid to French backpackers."
RNZ
