Christopher Luxon is the Most Preferred Prime Minister
Venkat Raman
Auckland, August 25, 2023
Respondents to the Indian Newslink Opinion Poll have overwhelmingly chosen National as their Party of choice to form the next government.
The ACT Party, like all other polls, is also seen as a natural partner for National.
Two hundred respondents took part in the First Opinion Poll of Indian Newslink, with a majority of them identifying themselves as People of Indian Origin. 60.5% of them said that they would vote for National in the general election due to be held on October 14, 2023, while only 16.8% said that they would vote for Labour.
The ACT Party was the favourite of 14.2%, while 4.2% chose New Zealand First. The Green Party was the fourth favourite (3.2%) and The Opportunities Party was at a distance with 0.5%. Other political parties did not score at all.
In terms of this Poll, National should be able to govern on its own but all other long-standing Opinion Polls have indicated the formation of a National-ACT government after the general election. Guests attending the Indian Newslink Electionlink launches held on July 10, July 12, July 13 and July 17, 2023 (mostly from South Asian communities constituting Indian Newslink readership) said that a partnership with ACT will be necessary to ensure its smooth functioning.
The First Opinion Poll portrays a different scenario, making the ensuing Indian Newslink Polls over the next two months critical.
The Indian Newslink Opinion Poll was an online survey conducted on the Indian Newslink website, various social media platforms and the channels of Indians Living in Auckland Facebook Group, Radio Spice network and Punjabi Weekly Tasveer.
The Indian Newslink Second Opinion Poll will be launched tonight (Friday, August 25, 2023) and will run until September 7, 2023, with the results published the following day (September 8).
Luxon as Prime Minister
National Party’s Christopher Luxon was the leading candidate for the post of Prime Minister, endorsed by 65.8% of the respondents, followed by Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins with 17.6%. David Seymour was the third with a 10.7% rating, while Winston Peters was the choice of 4.3%. James Shaw, Co-Leader of the Green Party received 1.6%.
The Poll found 78.5% of the participants saying that the country was not moving in the right direction, while 11.3% said otherwise; 46.1% said that they felt safe in New Zealand while 45.1% said that they did not feel safe; 8.8% felt that they were very safe. The others were either unsure or did not want to answer the question.
On the state of the Public Health system, 57.2% of those surveyed said that they were not satisfied, while 34% said that they were ‘somewhat satisfied.’ Only 4.1% said that they were very satisfied and 2.6% said that they do not use the public health system.
Priorities for the next government
Our Respondents were asked to set the priorities for the next government and listed them as Law and Order, Cost of Living, Public Health, Education and Immigration.
Law and Order topped the list- with about 43.6% saying that it should be the highest priority for the government. Cost of living was the second highest with 35.2% of the respondents for whom Law and order was second in priority. Public health came in third with 46.9%.
Education was seen as the the fourth highest priority by 57.4% of the respondents. Immigration was fifth in the list of priorities for with 71% choosing it as their fifth highest priority.
About the Opinion Poll
The age-wise composition of the respondents was as follows:
People in the 45-54 age group represented the largest share of respondents (25.4%), followed by 55-64 (22.7%), 25-34 (17.3%), 35-44 (16.2%), 18-24 (1.6%) and Under 18 (0.5%).
People of Indian origin claimed the largest share among participants (64.7%), followed by People of Sri Lankan origin (12%) and others made up of People of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Nepali origin (8.2%). About 4.3% of the respondents said that they were of European origin while 3.3% identified themselves as Fiji Indians and 1.1% as Korean.
Since the Indian Newslink Opinion Polls are written-in surveys, the margin of error is likely to be extremely low but accept the possibility that public mood and therefore choice and opinion are likely to change in the ensuing Polls.
Our Opinion Polls are extremely simple and can be completed in less than three minutes.
The Indian Newslink Second Opinion Poll can be accessed from 7PM (August 25, 2023) at www.indiannewslink.co.nz
