Dawn Chorus: National's lead over Labour widens

Despite Luxon still failing to fire in the personal popularity stakes, the centre-right (National-ACT) is increasing its lead over the centre-left (Labour-Green-TPM). File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: With 94 days to go until the election, National’s lead over Labour has widened dramatically in a closely-watched poll by Labour’s private pollster.

The gap between the centre-right bloc and the centre-light has not widened quite so much, but still shows a clear lead for National-ACT.

News elsewhere in our political economy today, here and overseas

• Waka Kotahi banned KiwiRail from operating its Te Huia passenger service into Auckland central after a couple of safety incidents;

• the Government appointed a new chair for the Electricity Authority after criticism by the Consumer Advocacy Council of its performance;

• global insurance giant AXA looks set to abandon reinsurance of property because of fears it will be hit harder by a warming climate; and

• watch out for the Reserve Bank to leave the OCR unchanged at 5.5% at 2pm today.

Paying subscribers can see much more of my detail and analysis on these political economy issues around housing, climate and poverty below the paywall fold and in my podcast above. Paying subscribers can comment below and also have exclusive access to our Chat channel, which includes an active community and plenty of news updates and insights. Payers can also get into our weekly ‘Hoon’ and ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Fridays at 5pm and midday respectively Free subscribers can join the community now and support our public journalism work on climate, housing and poverty by upgrading to a paid subscription. Come and join us.