Concerns about climate change at record high
Cost of living has topped the list of New Zealanders’ concerns, while housing ranked second, along with crime, ahead of the October election.
Climate change, meanwhile, climbed up the ranks of concerns, tying with healthcare for fourth, after Auckland’s deadly floods and Cyclone Gabrielle wreaked havoc in the country in recent weeks.
A new Ipsos NZ poll showed cost of living was New Zealand’s top issue (65%), followed by housing and crime, tied in second place (33%), then healthcare and climate (27%), in fourth, Australian Associated Press reported.
Climate change saw its rating surge by six percentage points to 27%, the highest rating for the issue, after a record rainfall in Auckland brought flooding that killed four, and its worst storm in a generation killed 11 and rendered whole communities uninhabitable.
By comparison, climate change didn’t rank in the top 10 in Ipsos’ Australian polling.
Despite Gabrielle’s horrors, inflation or cost of living remained the top issue facing New Zealanders, up 7% since the last poll in September to 65% – the highest rating of any issue since the Ipsos survey began.
It surged to that rank in early 2022, after the developed world experienced the post-COVID inflation shock, and has stayed there since.
“Concerns about inflation and the cost of living have been with us for 12 months now... This is the number-one issue facing most countries around the world,” said Carin Hercock, Ipsos NZ managing director.
National is believed to be more capable of dealing with crime, while Labour is on top with healthcare, and the Greens most trusted on climate change, the Ipsos survey found.
New Zealand’s headline inflation currently sits at 7.2%, pushing the Reserve Bank to lift the OCR to 4.75%.
“New Zealand seems to have been thrown one challenge after another over the last few years, but we’ve never seen an issue as prominent as the cost of living and inflation is now,” said Amanda Dudding, Ipsos NZ research director.
Housing was a top issue in New Zealand in 2021 and was then followed by healthcare.
The rankings provide New Zealand's political parties with strong guidance as they prepare for the Oct. 14 election.
Chris Hipkins, who succeeded Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, has pledged to refocus the government’s priorities to “bread-and-butter” issues.
According to Ipsos’ September 2022 poll, the opposition party National was more trusted than Labour to deal with the issue of the cost of living (26% to 40%). But in this month’s poll, Labour’s 14-point shortfall dwindled to just 3% (31% to 34%), AAP reported.
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