Judith Collins on hate speech, Three Waters and 'Karen'

Opposition Leader Judith Collins. Photo / George Novak

Opposition leader Judith Collins pulled no punches on The Country today, with the Government and even her own party in her sights.

Collins asked for a point of order in Parliament yesterday during a discussion on hate speech legislation, after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a joke about her being a "Karen".

Calling someone a Karen went against Ardern's caring image, Collins told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"The Prime Minister has cultivated a very nice persona and what we saw yesterday was - she was under attack -so she went for the personal."

"I just say if the Prime Minister wants to get down there – I'm going to leave her down there."

Collins said neither Ardern or Justice Minister Kris Faafoi knew what they were doing about "this hate speech thing". She believed they wanted to criminalise people who made "mean comments".

"I'm not quite sure how they want to define that, and they clearly are not sure how they want to define it."

Meanwhile, the Government's Three Waters reforms were "extremely costly and extremely unfair."

The plan involved merging drinking water, wastewater and stormwater and have them run by "big regional bodies," Collins said.

"That might be ok, except that the cost they're putting on it now is 185 billion dollars…our national debt is about 100 billion dollars."

The new regional entities would own and operate all three waters assets on behalf of the councils. They will be overseen by four Regional Representative Groups with an equal number of mana whenua and local government representatives – up to six seats each.

This was part of a "radical agenda" about "co-governance of the country between the Government and iwi" which was not part of the Treaty of Waitangi, Collins said.

"It is a radical interpretation and it must stop and it won't stop until people… realise just how serious this is."

People who voted for Labour to stop the Greens in the last election now had to deal with "the Greens on steroids", Collins said.

The Three Waters initiative was "separatist politics" designed to divide up the country based on ethnicity, Collins said.

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While Collins was not only angry at the Government, she had strong words for her own party.

"I will not put up…with anybody leaking against our members of Parliament, leaking out of caucus or anything like that – that is why we need discipline and that is why I am enforcing it – and caucus is right behind that."

"I will not brook any evidence of bad behaviour when it is counterproductive to us working as a team."

Collins said National was "happy to stand against the Government on issues such as the "ute tax", and wetland reforms, and that her party stood behind the farmer-led group Groundswell.

However, there was one idea she was not happy to contemplate, which was Mackay's suggestion that she form a coalition with Winston Peters.

"Jamie – bugger off".

Collins said she was "sick and tired" of listening to Peters "popping up every now and again," making statements and then supporting Labour and the Greens "to do exactly what they want."

"He was in Government when a lot of this stuff was being contemplated… and if he'd been awake, he would've seen what they were doing – so no."