This time last year, I remember the then relatively-new National Party leader Christopher Luxon saying to me: “Give me a chance to prove myself, John. I’ve only been in the job five minutes”. Or words to that effect.

Twelve months on and with a lot of water under the bridge, including the resignation of a Prime Minister, it appears that Christopher Luxon still has work to do to prove himself to voters.

Two political polls came out last night. Both taken in the past week, including the immediate aftermath of the Auckland storm event and flooding.

And both polls showed very similar results. A growth in support for the Labour Party and a dip in support for National. With both polls showing how tight things are at the moment between the two major political parties.

Where things were a bit more clear-cut was in the Newshub poll and the level of trust in the leaders of the two main parties.

In that poll, 53 percent of voters said they trusted Labour leader and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins while just 36 percent said they trusted National’s Christopher Luxon.

Which is an interesting question given the old line that gets trotted out time and time again about politicinas not being worthy of our trust.

But, when it comes to voting - as we will be on October 14 - trust plays a very big part in our decision-making, doesn’t it?

And, when we think about who we trust, it can come down to gut feeling as much as anything.

I’ve found that when someone trots out that old line about not trusting someone as far as they could kick them - when you ask them why, more often than not they can’t exactly tell you.

You’ll get people saying ‘oh, not sure really. I just dont like the look of them. They’ve got shifty eyes. Or, would you trust anyone who says they’ve never broken the speed limit?

And then, rightly or wrongly, there are people in certain lines of work who can have a hard time getting people to trust them.

Again, rightly or wrongly, this can include the likes of car salespeople, journalists, lawyers sometimes. But the ones who score the lowest time and time again when it comes to trust, is politicians.

Two years ago, a survey by Research NZ found only 22 percent of people actually trust politicians. So when people take part in a political poll and they’re asked which politician they trust most, chances are their starting point is very low.

Nevertheless, when it comes to deciding who we want running the country, we do have to ask ourselves which of a bad bunch we trust most.

And according to the Newshub poll out last night, a lot more people trust Labour leader and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins than National leader Christopher Luxon.

Which is interesting because, as many people are pointing out at the moment, Hipkins has been front, left and centre of the current Labour government. The government which, until a couple of weeks ago, was led by Jacinda Ardern whose popularity was nowhere near what it used to be.

But, somehow, more people trust Hipkins than trust Luxon - who has been National leader for more than a year now and has had more than enough time to build voter trust. So why hasn’t he?

My theory, is that most New Zealanders just don’t trust smooth operators. And Luxon is a smooth operator.

He’s been chief executive of a major airline. You’ve got to be a smooth operator to do that. He’s worked high-up in other international companies as well. Got to be a smooth operator. But to be a smooth operator, you have to suppress a bit of yourself too. And that’s where I think Luxon’s problem lies.

He talks the talk but, when it comes down to it, I think people find it difficult to relate to him.

I think the noise about Luxon being the next John Key has died down. But he was never going to be another John Key. Because John Key wasn’t a former chief executive - he was a former trader. And traders love volatility. Traders love risk. Traders don’t have to be smooth operators. Chief executives hate volatility. They hate risk. And they have to be smooth operators.

And if you hate volatility and risk, that’s going to translate into how you present yourself. You play it safe. You might talk the talk - but that’s as far as it goes. And I think until Christopher Luxon lets the guard down a bit and shows a bit more of the real person, then he is going to continue pushing it uphill when it comes to improving his trust rating with voters.

Will the real Christopher Luxon please stand up.

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