The Star: May 11, 2023

The Star Thursday May 11 2023
MERSE
023 IMMERSE
IMMERSE 2023
Christchurch
19 May–21 May
In association with
6
NEWS
PHOTO: NZME
Poll: National and
Act could govern
Beethoven
PIANO
CONCERTO CYCLE
THE LATEST political poll has National
nudging past Labour and able to form a
government with the Act Party.
But voters still don’t appear to be resonating
with National leader Christopher
Luxon, who is at his lowest favorability
rating since becoming leader in November
2021.
The latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll
was released yesterday, revealing Labour
had dropped just over three points in
the past month to 33.8 per cent of the
party vote, falling behind National which
dropped by just under one point to 35.6
per cent.
The big winner was Act, bumping up 3.2
points to 12.7 per cent. The results would
mean National at 46 seats and Act on 16
could form a government with 62 out of
the 120 seats.
The Green Party was relatively stable at 7
per cent (up 0.3 points since April). Te Pāti
Māori was on 3.7 per cent, up 0.8 points.
Those results for Parliament’s current
left-wing parties would see Labour get 44
seats, the Green Party nine seats and Te
Pāti Māori five seats.
While the centre-right would be in a
position to form a government, Prime
Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins
continues to prove far more popular than
National’s Luxon.
Hipkins’ net favourability score was
positive 22 per cent – six points lower than
last month and down 11 points on his
March peak of positive 33 per cent.
Luxon meanwhile was at negative 7 per
cent, meaning more people gave him an
unfavourable rating than favourable.
This was his lowest level since he became
National Party leader in November 2021.
Act Party leader David Seymour was on
negative 11 per cent.
Among National voters, Hipkins had a
slightly positive net favourability rating of
7 per cent while Luxon had a score of negative
56 per cent with Labour voters.
Among undecided voters, Hipkins had
a positive net favourability of 30 per cent,
while Luxon was on negative 26 per cent.
The poll was conducted between May 2
and May 7 and included 1000 respondents.
– Newstalk ZB
• The race for Ilam, pages 14-15
Immerse 2023 presents
a weekend of Beethoven,
Mozart, Schumann and more.
Youth crime age
continues to drop
Eduardo Strausser Conductor
Paul Lewis Piano
Tickets from $23
Book at nzso.co.nz
Principal Partners
• From page 1
After they were apprehended the
13-year-old girl told police “I love it, I’m
just addicted”, it is understood.
The 13-year-old boy is also believed to
have been involved in joyriding a stolen
car to Oamaru and then back to Christchurch,
a trip of about 500km.
A source said the boy’s offending was
“escalating”.
“He’s just going for it.”
Driving from Christchurch to Nelson
and back in stolen cars was “just Russian
roulette”, the source said.
“We have so many crashes with your
average driver through the Lewis Pass . .
. It’s a long drive, it’s going to be tedious,
and for a young person who probably has a
very short attention span that’s going to be
a lot of effort to keep it on the road.”
It was previously revealed a 9-year-old
was believed to be involved in one of many
groups of youth offenders behind a series
of car thefts and burglaries in Christchurch.
A police source said staff were seeing a
“continual drop in age” in youth offenders.
“I think that’s a very concerning aspect
because for us it’s now dropping very
strongly into that non-prosecutable group
and that’s causing us headaches because
we can’t bring any control to that, we can’t
bring any meaningful accountability.
“There is still the activeness of the
higher age level which just continues on as
it always has, but this younger group what
we are seeing is just that repetitive nature
of their offending because they’re getting
caught, they’re getting returned home and
they’re out and gone within hours and
back into the offending.”
Police were involved in a number of
initiatives aimed at preventing youth offending
and reoffending, said Canterbury
metro area commander Superintendent
Lane Todd.
“We recognise that in order to prevent
future generations of young people from
serious harm, we need to work in a collaborative
way to address the underlying
causes of youth offending.”
– NZ Herald