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Download AudioThe Māori Party’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is celebrating her co-leader Rawiri Waititi making the preferred prime minister poll for the first time.
She told Radio Waatea talkback host Merepeka Raukawa-Tait the 1 percent of support for Mr Waititi in the One News Kantar poll and the party’s 2 percent jump to 3 percent support is a great result six months out from the election.
It comes despite problems the pollsters have in reaching Māori.
“When you see Te Pāti Māori are continuously in this position of being able to determine the next Government it’s really interesting the phones aren’t hot and media aren’t jumping around and for the very first time a Te Pāti Māori co-leader shows up as a preferred prime minister. Yes, it’s 1 percent, but we’re a party of two,” she says.
The One News Kantar poll found Labour at 36 percent would need support from both the Māori Party and the Greens to form the next Government, with National at 34 percent, the Greens and ACT both at 11 percent and New Zealand First at 3 percent still below the threshold for reentering parliament.
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