Will’s Word: The new statewide political poll points to a cliffhanger

Another poll, another result that tells us what we already know.

This is shaping up to be one hell of a tight election.

The latest Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll suggests neither the left nor right bloc could form a government if an election were held tomorrow.

Labour has slipped 0.3 points to 34.1 per cent. National is down 0.2 to 31.3 per cent.

New Zealand First has dropped 1.4 points to 10.5 per cent, while the Greens have climbed 2.6 points to 10.3 per cent. ACT is down slightly to 6.7 per cent. Te Pāti Māori sits at 2.9 per cent.

So it's tight, but how much should we really read into polls when we are still months out from election day?

Listen to Will's Word below.

Polls offer a useful pulse check, don't get me wrong. They capture voter sentiment and trends. But they are also snapshots in time, taken in an environment that can move quickly.

Plus, campaigns have not fully ramped up, we're yet to see a slew of new policies, and the leaders are yet stumble or fumble on the hustings.

Winston Peters, for one, is famously against polling. Good or bad, he dismisses them. And in some ways, he has a point - Kiwi politics has a history of surprises.

I suppose the only clear takeaway right now is that this election is still wide open.