Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was focused on Kiwis - not the polls - as Labour leader Chris Hipkins has overtaken Luxon as preferred prime minister, and the centre-left bloc would be able to form a government based on results in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll.
The prime minister played down the latest results, saying polls were "bouncing around a lot".
Luxon said it was a "tough time for Kiwis" and the government's job was to focus on what New Zealanders want, and "that is all about us fixing the economy".
The Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll - conducted last week - gives the centre-right bloc just 58 seats, down one and not enough to form government
It also registered Labour as the most popular party - and Labour leader Chris Hipkins as the most preferred prime minister.
"I don't give it a lot of thought," said Luxon, "I'm here each and every day making sure that we're actually growing the economy.
"That's why we're doing the infrastructure summit, that's why we're going to India."
Luxon reiterated he had never "obsessed too much" on polls.
"I'm here to do a job, and the job is to turn New Zealand around.
"Me talking about myself and polls isn't particularly helpful."
In response to questions about Hipkins being the preferred prime minister, Luxon said New Zealanders are "expecting this government, and they voted for this government, to fix the economy".
"New Zealanders are going to have an opportunity in 2026 to make a decision around Chris Hipkins or myself and our respective governments.
"What my job is to make sure that New Zealanders can see they are better off under my government."
Luxon said polls bounce around, and there are a lot of them, but New Zealanders "don't want me talking about myself, they want me talking about them and focused on them."
Asked how it felt to be top of the preferred prime minister rankings, Hipkins said he was "not taking anything for granted".
"I said after the last election that we had a lot of work ahead of us to regain the trust and confidence of New Zealanders so that we could win the next election. We're just under half way through the parliamentary term now, and we've still got a lot more work to do.
"I'm encouraged by where the polls are at now, that doesn't mean that it's plain sailing for us from here."
He said questions of whether Luxon would still be prime minister come election time were being asked more, but it was ultimately a question for National - not him.
Today's poll result comes after a week which saw the government make moves towards speeding up infrastructure projects, sack the country's diplomatic representative in the UK and apologise for the ongoing school lunch omnishambles.
Coalition partner New Zealand First introduced a bill to get rid of "woke" language it put into law when it was in coalition with Labour, and its leader Winston Peters was now heading to the United States to meet with his counterpart Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Luxon also addressed sacked minister Andrew Bayly's two-weeks off to go mountain climbing, the debate over the length of the Parliamentary term and another potential overhaul of the health system.
He said it was entirely appropriate for the former Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister to be taking a couple of weeks off - and said it was important that Bayly took some time to clear his head.
Luxon confirmed he personally approved Bayly taking "time out" after resigning and said he was "relaxed" about Bayly's vacation.
"In the circumstances, just take a step back, we have an individual who made a really significant and big and emotional decision for him, right? Quite rightly.
"It's not unreasonable to allow him some time off to actually clear his head."
Luxon rejected the idea that Bayly was being rewarded for bad behaviour and said it was "entirely appropriate" for him to take some time to process what had happened.
"It's not the thing I'd be doing, going to base camp, I might choose to do it in a different way, but the bottom line is, 'look, each to their own'.
"If he wants to to do that and that's the way that he processes and that's the way he clears his head, good on him."
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