Covid-19: Pandemic politics are on the way out, but a world of uncertainty remains

Luke Malpass is political editor of Stuff.

OPINION: Two polls, two different results for Labour and the Government.

First, last week a 1News Kantar Poll showed the National Party leading Labour for the first time since 2020, with the Māori Party holding the balance of power. A second Taxpayers’ Union Curia Research Poll on Thursday showed the centre-left parties of Labour and the Greens still forming a government – just.

What these two polls have in common is that they show how tight the election race between centre-left (Labour and the Greens) and centre-right (National and ACT) is going to be for the next 18 months.

Among other things, the tightening of the polls hints at what the past two weeks have confirmed: that the politics of Covid are now coming to a close. While the reality of Covid in the community and the Ministry of Health’s response will keep rolling on for several months, affecting households and workplaces, the political currency…