Watch: Bennett and Ardern clash over child poverty - 'Will she scatter money around hoping it hits the children who need it?'

National's Paula Bennett and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern clashed in a heated debat over child poverty legislation in Parliament yesterday. 

Ms Bennett asked: "How many children will her Government move out of poverty by 1 July, 2019?" 

"Exact details of the impact of our families package will be released when the legislation is introduced," Ms Ardern, also the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction, answered.

Ms Bennett asked if Ms Ardern accepted a range of measures would be needed to calculate child poverty, "and you can't just pick one, as she has repeatedly said in the past". 

Ms Ardern shortly replied: "Had the member ever bothered to read my Member's Bill which was on the table for six years she would have seen I have always advocated a range of measures be put into law. Six years." 

Paula Bennett asked if support would be targeted down to household level, "or will she scatter money around hoping it hits the children who need it?"

Ms Ardern said the legislation she was proposing would be based across household incomes. 

"That's the same kind of rationale the government sporadically used but refused to ever set targets around," she said.

"I have long recognised child poverty is a stain on this country, it's an indictment, but this is a government that is willing to acknowledge that and to do something about it."