There is a wide aknowledgement that the previous government had it's spending out of control and was quite wasteful, and pretty much all the key areas that people are concerned about were declining badly.
This coalition government is definitely getting things done. A mix of really good stuff, some not good stuff and a bit of in between as well.
The polls haven't really changed much since the election, possibly even strengthened the coalition position slightly. I see a number of reasons why this could be happening. People are happy in general with the decisions and direction. There is actually some action happening and whether you agree with some, all or none of them, they are making it happen. Take education as an example, with one simple policy of banning cell phones they have already changed things for the better more than any policy, if you can even think of one, that the previous lot did. And there was push back against it, lots of reasons given why it can't be done, yet it's in and working and without many, if any issues that had been said would or could occur. Action and urgency. Almost the polar opposite of the previous. Another aspect is the money spent. I think most wouldn't or didn't mind the borrowing and the spending if there were tangible results or assets to show for it. We are seeing more controlled, accountable spending already and I think the feeling from those continuing to support them is that this is the case - sure, you can argue whether the priorities are right or not but it would be a hard ask to contend it's anywhere near, let alone worse than what we had. Now, let's assume, as a few one eyed posters on here would suggest, that the coalition is bad, corrupt, etc etc. why would the polls remain as high as they are? Why would consumer and business confidence be up and the later as high as it's been since 2016? One can only conclude either one or a mix of the majority agree with for the most part what the government are doing, it's better than what was there previously and that's fresh in the mind, and the alternative offer to this lot doesn't resonate or provide a better option.
Of course with democracy, the answer, if this government is so bad, is to vote in a new one. The problem is that you have the Greens who are largely a mess. James Shaw looks like he was holding them together but smart enough to realize it was time to get out. They have had shop lifting, bullying complaints, Darlene Tana situation carrying on and on.... (If you want to talk about leadership, how long has that been going on for) currently they appear unable to manage anything other than organise marches for Palestine and even that seems to have dropped away now it's not flavour of the month. What do they stand for other than that because their message, if they have one, has been lost. Then you have Labour who no one knows what they stand for and squandered a govern alone position where they had the chance to back themselves but didn't. Hipkins I'm for CGT, no I'm not, but now I am simply can't be the leader that takes them in to the next election. And they really need a rebuild after losing a lot of experience last election. Then you only have the Maori party left who seem on the face of it to be the yin to Acts yang with both being equally as divisive IMO. It will be interesting to see if the supporter base for this party continues to grow particularly if they aren't in a position to be in government after the next election. It's interesting to me that the original Maori party went in to government with National and probably achieved more doing so, but got decimated for it with Labour essentially picking up the Maori seats but delivering nothing, and now back to a basically activist Maori party, good at organizing a protest or two. Sitting outside of government and unwilling to work with anyone other than Labour/Greens. Interesting to that they were the only party to vote against the EU free trade deal. I feel a coalition government with them in it would struggle to get much done in a timely fashion. Essentially leaving a left and right block of parties. The current coalition looks stable at this point in time and the left look a mess. Until that left block can sort themselves out and provide a coherent and clear idea of what they actually stand for and that provides an alternative to compete with this coalition, why would voters other than the party faithful look to them?
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