'Back to school': PM Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins set to go head-to-head in the House

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will go head-to-head with National leader Judith Collins for the first time this year. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins are set to go head-to-head for the first time this year as Parliament resumes.

Collins said heading back for the year felt like "the first day back at school" and that she'd be using the first Question Time of 2021 to needle the Government on issues like the vaccine roll-out, housing crisis and child poverty.

She also hinted there'd be questions on light rail in Auckland and KiwiBuild.

"There's a whole raft on them and yes I will be asking the questions."

She was coy about her strategies for the first Question Time of 2021 because that would be "telling" but said MPs would be asking questions which required a detailed answer.

"And it would be very nice if we got some."

National will kick off the year by attempting a doomed motion of no confidence in Speaker Trevor Mallard for costing taxpayers $330,000 settling the defamation case with the Parliamentary staffer he alleged was a rapist.

Labour's outright majority means the move won't pass.

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Parliament will then go into urgency to debate the bill to get rid of a public veto on Māori wards.

The rushed law change is to ensure councils planning to set up Māori wards in the 2022 local body elections will not have those wards overturned by a referendum of local electors, although councils could still instigate their own polls to gauge public opinion.

Collins has indicated National won't support the bill because it wants the bill to go through the full parliamentary process but Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the use of urgency was to give certainty to local authorities.

Parliament will then debate the bill to ban objectionable content from being livestreamed and the Sexual Violence Legislation Bill which aims to reduce the trauma complainants may experience giving evidence.

As well there will be 13 maiden speeches from new MPs this week who weren't able to speak last year.

On Tuesday Act's Mark Cameron, James McDowall, Karen Chhour and Toni Severin will speak first, followed by Labour's Emily Henderson, Gaurav Sharma, Sarah Pallett and Glen Bennett.

Tomorrow

Act's Damien Smith and Brooke van Velden, the Greens' Elizabeth Kerekere and Labour's Rachel Brooking and Rachel Boyack will speak.

Act leader David Seymour said he was looking forward to his MPs' speeches - in particular Smith who fled Northern Ireland during its troubles and Chhour's who grew up as a child of the state.