Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and National leader Judith Collins clashed over tax cuts in the TVNZ leaders' debate on Tuesday night.
They were asked about keeping kids in education, specifically with pressure to get jobs and support families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response, Ardern said she doesn't want any young person feeling like they have to leave school. She said it's important to make sure their family members earn enough through minimum wage increases.
However, Collins fired back that the minimum wage is already $18.90 per hour, which would not go up under National. Instead Collins said the tax cuts proposed by National will help middle New Zealand.
When Collins was asked why she was giving such small tax cuts to those on minimum wage, she said she wanted to focus on helping the average earner.
"Of course people who are on the minimum wage will get a tax cut but the biggest impact is going to be for the average earner - the $64,000 earner, people like nurses, primary school teachers because they're really suffering."
But Ardern labelled the tax cuts as "simply irresponsible" because it would use money from the COVID-19 response recovery fund.
"I shouldn't get a tax cut right now, I shouldn't. My view is, right now, tax cuts… they're simply irresponsible," she said.
"Well give it back then," Collins replied.
Collins pushed back on Ardern's criticism saying, "It's all borrowed money."
