WELLINGTON, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- About 30 percent of the New Zealand population rated their trust in parliament as high, and a further 9 percent rated their trust very high, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.
On the other hand, 29 percent of people in New Zealand rated their trust in parliament as low, according to results from the 2016 New Zealand General Social Survey on political participation.
The two-yearly face-to-face survey asks 8,000 people a range of questions, including on voting, political discussion, signing petitions, as well as perceptions of trust and political influence, Stats NZ said.
In contrast to the results on trust, about one-third of people in New Zealand feel they can not influence government decisions, the survey said, adding that 25 percent rated the New Zealand public's influence on government decision-making as high, and 4 percent rated it as very high.
Women were more likely to vote than men in the 2014 election, it said. A previous Stats NZ release on voting also showed that women were likely to vote in the 2011 and 2008 elections.
"New Zealand was the first country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections," labor markets and household senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.
The survey also showed that 71 percent of people surveyed follow politics in the media or 61 percent talk about their political views with others, while one-quarter signed a petition, e-petition, or wrote a submission in 2016.
