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📍 Remember when the National Party promised to get New Zealand “Back on Track”? Two years on, the government looks less like a steady hand and more like the ambulance waiting at the bottom of a cliff. The latest Ipsos Issues Monitor has delivered its most damning verdict against this government yet: a 3.9 out of 10 performance rating — the lowest in the survey’s eight-year history — alongside collapsing confidence in National’s ability to manage the cost of living, the economy, health, housing and more. Against that backdrop, Christopher Luxon’s insistence this week that his government has done “an incredible job of trying to get the basics and fundamentals sorted” didn’t just ring hollow — it sounded like a Prime Minister refusing to acknowledge the scale of public disillusionment. The public’s verdict on the cost of living — a central promise of Luxon and Nicola Willis’ election campaign — is particularly brutal. Cost of living remains the country’s overwhelming top concern, yet Labour has widened its lead as the party most trusted to manage it. National, which promised discipline and relief, has presided over rising grocery prices, persistent food inflation, and the eleventh consecutive month of electricity price hikes. Add to this the continuing rise in unemployment, and the Government’s economic narrative collapses under its own contradictions. This abject failure to deliver is fuelling a broader collapse in credibility. Labour is now seen as more capable on 15 of the top 20 issues, including the economy — a staggering reversal for a National-led government that campaigned almost exclusively on competence. The promise of “back to basics” has devolved into weaker public services, struggling households, and a government completely out of its depth. Yesterday’s opinion piece by Stuff political reporter Tova O’Brien (linked in the comments below) perfectly captured the political danger: Luxon’s detachment is rapidly becoming an electoral liability. He insults the public’s intelligence with his claim that they have “done an incredible job of trying to get the basics…sorted.” Tell that to the New Zealanders feeling pain at the grocery checkout, the tens of thousands being ghosted by prospective employers, or the hundreds leaving for Australia every week in search of better opportunities. Willis, meanwhile, remains the public face of the Government’s economic decisions — the budgets, cuts and priorities that have failed to improve daily life — and voters are clearly holding her accountable. The effects are unmistakable: Labour surging in perceived economic competence, and National bleeding trust. Which forces the question yet again: with only a year before the next general election and the Government’s credibility rapidly disintegrating, surely it is time for Luxon and Willis to go. National were elected because voters were led to believe they would govern more competently than Labour — that they would steady the country, restore confidence, and produce economic prosperity for all. Instead, the complete opposite has happened. The evidence is overwhelming: Luxon and Willis have all but completely lost the room. If National can’t, or won’t, change course immediately, voters will simply do it for them. Here’s political correspondent Zane Small with his report for Three News on Monday night. #nzpol