Rating for New Zealand prime minister hits new high

A latest poll released on Monday showed that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reached her highest ever rating as preferred prime minister.

According to the One News/Colmar Brunton Poll, Ardern's popularity reached 51 percent as preferred prime minister compared to 5 percent for Simon Bridges, the opposition National Party leader.

Ardern said following Monday's poll that she knew "when I'm fulfilling people's expectations and when I'm not, but my focus is still on doing the best I can."

Monday's poll also showed that Labor Party's popularity was at 48 percent, up 3 percentage points compared with the last poll, while ratings for opposition National Party were down 3 percentage points to 40 percent, which was its lowest level of support in this poll since the 2017 election.