The cost of living is the most important issue on the minds of Kiwis as they head into next month's election, the first results from 1News Vote Compass suggest.
Launched on Sunday, the online tool has already amassed over 150,000 responses.
Where do you sit? Find out here at: 1News.co.nz/VoteCompass
People using Vote Compass were asked: "What issue is most important to you in this election?" The top five issues identified through the responses include:
- Cost of living: 28%
- Economy: 17%
- Healthcare: 14%
- Crime: 9%
- Environment: 8%
Launched on Sunday, the online tool has already amassed over 150,000 responses.
While it isn't a traditional opinion poll, as respondents are self-selecting, Vote Compass data is weighted in order to approximate a representative sample.
Cost of living dominated throughout all age groups as the highest-priority issue, aside from over-65s where healthcare was deemed a more important issue.
In comparison, three years ago, the country's economy was the most important issue for voters, followed by the Covid-19 response, and healthcare.
The first results from the tool are in, with more than 180,000 people taking part so far to find out where they stand on political parties’ policies.
Meanwhile, in 2017, healthcare was seen as the most important issue, followed by the economy and then housing.
Rising prices and inflation have put huge pressure on families across the country over the past two years as the global pandemic subsides.
In Māori electorates, cost of living was also overwhelmingly identified as the top issue.
- Cost of living: 35%
- Māori issues: 15%
- Economy: 14%
- Healthcare: 9%
- Social justice: 9%
Breaking the results down, Auckland respondents were more likely to suggest crime was an important issue for them — with the issue ranking third in per cent of mentions.
The only other region that didn't share the three main issues nationally was in Tasman, where the environment was ranked third.
Meanwhile, previous National and ACT voters had crime in their top three main issues, while cost of living and healthcare are the most important for undecided voters.
What is Vote Compass?
By using Vote Compass, New Zealanders can find out which political parties they are with on the key issues facing the country
You can choose to agree or disagree with 30 statements about issues like health, education, the environment, and tax. Vote Compass will then analyse your answers with the policies of different parties and show you how similar they are to your own views.
University of Auckland associate professor Jennifer Lees-Marshment said the results from the tool also serve as a way to gauge the public's insights on hot topics, as they are tabulated by researchers every few days.
Lees-Marshment said the results on key issues reported from Vote Compass would help "elevate" the voice of the public for how politicians and the media discussed the election.
The online tool launched today helps put the focus on policies, not just personalities.
Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by 1News/ TVNZ. The findings are based on 41,545 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from September 10, 2023 to September 13, 2023 and who answered the open-text question: "What issue is most important to you in this election?" Multiple mentions were possible and responses were aggregated into categories using natural language processing techniques.
Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data have been weighted by gender, age, education, income, region, Māori ancestry, and partisanship to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.
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