Kiwis have dramatically changed their opinion about the Prime Minister's performance - and the sentiment toward her is increasingly negative
Newshub asked voters how to describe Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon in our latest Newshub-Reid Research poll. One was labelled "arrogant", and the other a "liar".
From "amazing" to "fabulous", there are no prizes for guessing who Labour MPs were describing - Ardern.
But National MPs are less complimentary, describing Ardern as "disappointing", "distracted", and "divisive".
Back in May 2020, at the peak of pandemic popularity, Newshub asked in our poll for one word to describe Ardern. "Amazing", "good" and "compassionate" were among the answers.
In her hometown of Morrinsvillle, people are still feeling pretty kindly toward her.
"Hometown girl really," said one woman.
"A lady trying to do a difficult job," said another.
But the stardust has lost its sparkle.
Newshub asked the same question in our latest poll. This is the word cloud - the bigger the word - the more times it was mentioned.
The top responses were still "good", "caring", and "kind". But "useless" is right up there.
"Great", "emphatic" and "capable" are still there too. But alongside them is "incompetent", "fake", "unreliable", "liar", and "evil". A few even went as far as "deceitful" and "dictator".
The Prime Minister and her deputy chose their 'f words' carefully.
"Focussed", Ardern described herself as.
"Formidable", said Grant Robertson.
On Luxon, Robertson and Ardern called him "inexperienced" and "new".
His MPs were helpful, describing him as a "future Prime Minister".
Luxon perhaps has a bigger problem than the Prime Minister. People aren't necessarily turning off him, but they still just don't even know who he is.
"Don't know", "unsure", "unknown" and "businessman" are up there.
Labour's line is also working, with "inexperienced" showing up. Voters also said he is "learning", "trying", "boring" and "arrogant". A few called him "bald", "rich", "smarmy" and "white".
Or as Justice Minister Kiri Allan puts it: "Shiny."
The shines come off both leaders in the public's eyes as both have tanked in the Newshub-Reid Research performance ratings.
Just 47.3 percent thought Ardern has performed well and 38 percent said she's performed poorly.
Luxon's fallen just as far. The results show 39.4 percent think he's performed well and 28.2 percent think he's performed poorly.
The Newshub tracking graph shows Ardern's net performance has been steadily declining since May 2020, while Luxon's has sharply declined since our last poll - but he's just overtaking the Prime Minister's rating.
