Jacinda Ardern appeared to lose her patience with Judith Collins' repeated assertion Labour would implement the Green Party's wealth tax if the two formed a government after the election.
Ardern once again stated Labour wouldn't negotiate on the wealth tax with the Greens at tonight's final TVNZ leaders' debate.
Collins then reasserted her belief Ardern wasn't being truthful about the issue and Labour would be bullied by the Greens over the tax.
"I’m going to call you out on this," Ardern said to Collins.
"This has been happening for two weeks now. It’s a desperate political strategy to try and get votes and it’s wrong. We said we would campaign on fact and play it straight.
"This is a blatant campaign of misinformation that I’m putting an end to. I have made my view on this absolutely clear," Ardern said.
Debate moderator Jessica Mutch McKay then pointed out to Collins that her past statements ruling out implementing ACT's tax policy should National get into government is essentially the same thing Ardern has done with the Greens, so why should we believe her over Ardern?
"I'll tell you this, time and time again at the last election debates Ms Ardern and Labour promised so many things and hardly no delivery, like KiwiBuild and child poverty," Collins began saying before Ardern interjected.
"Politics, of course, is a place where you will have a lot of back and forth but I would never stand here and blatantly call someone a liar and that is unfortunately what Judith Collins is doing now," Ardern said.
"I’m sorry, how many broken promises before we start to say this?" Collins replied.
Earlier in the debate, the leaders clashed over child poverty, with National's leader saying the issue has gotten worse under the last three years of government.
Ardern took exception to the claim, stating, "That's factually incorrect."
Undeterred, Collins pressed on with her line of attack.
"It is correct, and if you look at kids living in material hardship, which means they can't get to a doctor and things like that, are 4100 more than when she took office.
"If you talk to the food banks they will tell you things have got worse, they haven't got better. So when you're talking about transformational change, it has just got worse," Collins said.
Both Labour’s and National’s leaders think they’re best placed to end the issue in New Zealand.
Ardern once again claimed Collins' statement was not true.
"That's completely incorrect. There are nine measures for child poverty - seven of them were getting worse under the last Government and those seven we have turned around.
"I’m not denying there is more to do. That’s why we are doing food in schools and making doctors visits cheaper," Ardern said.
The two leaders agreed on the target of halving child poverty in New Zealand by 2030.
"If we can possibly do it we would love to get there," Collins said.
In 2018, Ardern’s Government passed the Child Poverty Reduction Bill.
Her Government aimed to halve child poverty in New Zealand in under 10 years, with three targets in that period including: reducing the proportion of children in low income households from 20 per cent to 10 per cent and reducing the proportion of children in material hardship from 13 to 15 per cent down to seven per cent.
SHARE ME