NZ Herald 11 Sep 2012
The Conservative Party has had a bump in the polls following Parliament’s passing of the first reading of a bill to legalise gay marriage, the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey shows.
The Conservatives would not make it to Parliament on its 1.5 per cent rating (up from 0.5), but if the threshold of the party vote is lowered from its current 5 per cent to 4 per cent under reforms to MMP before the next election, it has to rise only 2.5 percentage points to make it into Parliament with several MPs.
Albany-based leader Colin Craig does not register at all in the preferred Prime Minister stakes.
The party launched only last year, polled 2.65 per cent at the election, then pretty much dropped away until recently.
Under the lowered threshold it would have to do only 1.35 percentage points better than last time to get into Parliament.
Mr Craig has been leading the opposition outside Parliament against Louisa Wall’s private member’s bill to legalise same-sex marriage.
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