Q+A look at the Whangarei electorate contest including a poll result between National MP Shane Reti and NZ First’s Shane Jones (see yesterday’s post Shane v Shane Anor (Whangarei).

Colmar Brunton poll for Whangarei:

Shane Reti (National) 42%

Shane Jones (NZ First) 24%

Tony Savage (Labour) 22%

Ash Holwell (Greens) 10%

Chris Leitch (Democrats for Social Credit)1.7%

Robin Grieve (ACT) 0.1%

So a big gap for Jones to close.

Party vote:

National 41% (2014 in Whangarei: 50.08%)

Labour 37% (17.79%)

NZ First 16% (13.36%)

Greens 3.6% (9.77%)

Maori 1.3% (0.53%)

ACT 1.0% (0.55%)

The Opportunities Party 0.4%

Other 0.3%

Polled 504 people, margin of error +/- 4.4

That is a worrying result for National in a safe seat, and a very good result for Labour.

Jones has lifted NZ First a bit – and his presence in Whangarei may distort the party support a bit.

Greens have crashed – and with reports of both National and Labour internal polls having Greens around 3-4% they look to have a major problem.