Amanda Luxon has suggested selective information may be to blame for her husband Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s polling numbers.
Speaking to the Dom Harvey Podcast, she suggested people are often surprised when they meet her husband in person and said, in New Zealand, there are “relatively few mechanisms for getting information out”.
“I actually feel as though New Zealanders are somewhat given a disservice. The information that comes up is quite a selective piece of information," she said.
"It's chosen by people, and we believe what's been given to us is the full story. We believe it is the correct story, and we believe it is factual and doesn't have an agenda or bias by anybody.
"But I can sometimes go, 'were they at the same thing I was at?' because in fact this was a really great event or a very great occasion, but what's reported is this tiny little you know, petty sort of thing on the side, and New Zealanders miss out."
She was speaking after a Taxpayers' Union Curia poll in March showed the National Party on a historically low 28%.
"They may still decide not to or to like Christopher, but they're only given a piece of the story."
'Safe home haven'
Amanda Luxon also touched on the impact the polls could have on her husband, and said "anybody could get affected by it".
"But I know there's whole communities that aren't being tapped that are very positive toward Christopher," she said.
"I understand him the best in the world, I know him the best in the world, and after all of this is over it's him and me, and so he can share with me and be very frank with me, and say things he couldn't necessarily express elsewhere.
"We're the safe home haven at night at home, and he comes home and is in a safe place and that's the important thing."
She added when it comes to a bad result "you've got to keep rising above that", even when it is tough.
"It's hard when you're achieving a lot, working so hard, and you know the information is not getting out there as to what's really going on, so it would absolutely reflect."
'The most extreme job'
Later on in the interview, she called her husband's role "the most extreme job", which is "all encompassing".
"I don't think people realise how quite extreme it is, and I didn't realise how extreme and the demands so, someone who was prepared for it didn't really realise it," she told the podcast.
"It is very difficult in the life within Parliament and politics that you don't get access. He is on the move the whole time, and he wants to be out in the community... so he will be out meeting people as much as he can and interfacing.
"But the consequence of that is that he is booked from six in the morning until ten at night and you go 'where is lunch in there?' and there isn't, and then you're on the road so there's no place to get the lunch.
"The natural thing is you go for the quick energy boost or what you can get on the go, which is never the best thing."
The most recent 1News Verian poll in February had National on 34% and Labour on 32%.
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