John Key is ahead of Helen Clark in NZ PM polls.

With Don Brash gone and John Key taking the leadership of the NZ National Party, TV3 said it was the first time since 1999, when Jenny Shipley was prime minister, that its TNS poll had shown anyone preferred as PM above Miss Clark.

Mr John Key scored 32 per cent, up four points compared with the last poll in March, and Miss Clark was down seven points to 30 per cent. A close call, but a positive change for the center right. "From every corner of New Zealand we're getting a very strong message that New Zealanders think it's time for a change," Mr Key said.

Miss Clark said the Government tended to get the blame every time something went wrong, even when events happened "well down the food chain" and across a lot of government departments. A rather arrogant comment from the current NZ PM.

The poll also showed National overtaking Labour in the party vote, in line with a trend shown by other polls. National was up from 42 per cent support in March to 48 per cent, while Labour was down from 44 per cent to 36 per cent. Yee HA.

The Green Party was up two points to 8 per cent and the Maori Party was up one point to 3.7 per cent. New Zealand First was up from 1.2 per cent in March to 2.4 per cent, while the other minor parties including ACT were below 1 per cent.

Translated into seats in Parliament, National would have 59 which is nearly enough to rule on its own without a partner and Labour would have 44, so they'd have to sit on the opposition benches. The Greens would have 10, the Maori Party five and ACT, United Future and the Progressive Party one each.

A pretty poor result for ACT really, it is time to get some increase in polling results. If the Greens can be on 8% and constitute rather hard left folk who would probably do more damage than good for NZ if they got more power then it is time for Rodney Hide to power up his SMART GREEN policy's which are particularly good and promote them big time.

There is no reason why ACT can't get 15% of the party vote next election if they are organized and have the right people in place to win seats. The longer it takes to get some positive results before the next election the more of a lottery it becomes.