Labour is on the receiving end of bad news in two new political polls, with the Nationals again gaining ground after a series of unpopular political moves knocked its support earlier this year.
A TVNZ-Colmar Brunton poll released on Sunday night sees National up one point to 48 per cent support, while Labour drops one point to 32 per cent.
Labour's result is worse in a 3News-Reid Research poll, with the party falling back 2.4 points to 30.8, while National picks up 4.8 points, reaching 50.6 per cent support.
TVNZ has the Greens on 12 per cent (down one), while 3News sees them drop 3.2 points to 11.2 per cent.
NZ First rises to three per cent in both polls, while the Maori Party hovers around two per cent.
The Conservative Party, which is outside parliament, gained a better result than most minor parties in the 3News poll, on 1.7 per cent, while the TVNZ poll put the party on one per cent.
Voters appear to agree with political opponents who say Labour leader David Shearer is "invisible", with him falling back further in the preferred prime minister stakes.
While Prime Minister John Key dropped to 45 per cent in the TVNZ poll (down 3), Mr Shearer also fell back one point to 13 per cent support.
In the 3News poll, Mr Key was up 2.7 points to 43.2 per cent, while Mr Shearer - now on just 8.9 per cent (down 3.3) - is only just ahead of NZ First leader Winston Peters, who is on 6.2 per cent (up 1.4 points).
The number of New Zealanders who believe Mr Key is doing a good job also rose (up 3.8 to 59.2 per cent), while the number who believe he's doing a bad job dropped (down 2.8 to 26.4).
By comparison, 34.5 per cent believe Mr Shearer is doing a good job (up 2.4) and 28.8 per cent believe he's doing badly (down 0.9).
The results show National has gained ground from a row over Maori water rights, after Mr Key said the government could ignore the Waitangi Tribunal's findings on the matter.
National also appears to be recovering from the ACC privacy breach, SkyCity pokies deal and public discontent over asset sales.
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