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The couple were discussing last year’s school climate strikes and declaring a climate emergency in New Zealand.
Ardern said he would “have no problem” declaring a climate emergency after it was rejected in parliament last year.
“It’s an emergency and everything we’ve done shows it,” Ardern said.
“An emergency in real terms means stopping future offshore oil and gas exploration.”
Collins disagreed with stopping oil and gas exploration, claiming that “the use of coal has increased.”
“So now we use more coal instead of natural gas to generate electricity,” he said.
“All the talk, all the emergency quackery, tells you what, really, is worse and not better under this particular leader.”
Ardern asked Collins, “What is your plan?”
“What for, dear?” Collins replied.
“Climate change,” Ardern said.
Collins said his plan is to support New Zealand farmers “by giving them the science” to help them reduce carbon emissions.
“What we are not doing is that we do not prevent them and our country from an order so that we can go take a photo somewhere,” he said.
In a post-debate discussion with Newshub’s political editor Tova O’Brien, Collins was asked if he’s concerned about appearing condescending when he uses phrases like “dear” and calls Ardern “naive.”
“I’m just myself, you see, and part of that is that sometimes when I hear slogans that are thrown without any kind of delivery … Actually, I find it a bit irritating to be given another slogan, be it about children poverty or whatever, when things actually got worse, they didn’t get better after three years, “Collins said.
“I think sometimes people hope that they don’t just get slogans thrown at them.”
