11 Mar 2011

ACT adamant it can recover from poor polling

10:00 am on 11 March 2011

The ACT Party begins its election year conference on Saturday with its MPs insisting it can bounce back from low poll ratings.

Support for the party fell to 1.3% in the latest Colmar Brunton poll and just 0.5% in the latest Roy Morgan poll.

In the past year, former law and order spokesperson David Garrett resigned from Parliament after admitting he fraudulently obtained a passport in the name of a dead baby, and Heather Roy was rolled as deputy leader amid claims of bullying behaviour by leader Rodney Hide.

Mr Hide admits some commentators question whether ACT will be returned to Parliament after November's election.

He says MPs have to constantly make their case, and at election time it is the voters who get to decide who is in Parliament.