Even in a pandemic politicians can't help politicking after National leader Judith Collins finally got her wish, forcing the Parliament to sit in lockdown.
She lit Parliament up on Wednesday afternoon, perhaps still fired up after a now viral morning media clash. Watching Breakfast television, you'd be forgiven for choking on your Coco Pops.
The National Party leader objected to the line of questioning, accusing the presenter of being "more interested in talking about me" than the vaccine rollout and the media of asking soft questions of the Prime Minister.
"Are you going to ask the question or are you going to answer it as well?" Collins said during the interview. "You think that I'm going to sit back and let that happen and not stand up for New Zealanders? Well you're wrong!"
Collins later reflected on her fiery performance.
"I think there's nothing like a good workout in the morning, Tova, it's like going to the gym," she said during a press conference at Parliament.
Collins on Breakfast went after the media, insisting she and her MPs need to be at Parliament because she's not happy with the press performance.
"Don't attack me for asking the question that you and the rest of the media should be asking the Prime Minister," she said.
"We've seen the sort of level of some of the questions that have been used in the press conferences, things like, 'How are you feeling today Prime Minister?' How about ask the questions for New Zealand?"
But Collins, who is National's Pacific Peoples spokesperson, also admitted she's failed to ask any questions of the Assembly of God church leaders at the centre of the outbreak, to see what they need or how they're feeling.
"My husband's Pasikifa, I talk to them every day," she said in the interview.
And after all her fighting to get to Parliament, she kept the fight up inside, after Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson decried "the selfishness of the Opposition".
"Obviously someone's a little bit tetchy today," Collins said in response, going on to describe Roberton's speech as "sanctimonious" and "smug".
Collins' performance this morning raised eyebrows with some in the National Party. Although she enjoyed herself and rated her performance, not everyone in her caucus feels the same.
