Finance Minister Grant Robertson has hit out at David Seymour for comments he made on a podcast joking about the intelligence of Jacinda Ardern last week.
In an interview last week, the ACT leader joked that Ardern wasn't capable of carrying out a conspiracy theory over Covid-19 because she was "too dumb". Seymour said there were "really crazy" conspiracy theories circulating about Covid-19.
He told podcast host Max Key: "Believe me, I know Jacinda. She couldn't keep up with a global conspiracy; even if she was in one, she'd screw it up. Don't worry about that, folks.
"She's not going to do a conspiracy, she's too dumb. Sadly, she can't organise anything else."
A fiery Robertson was answering a question put to him by the ACT leader about the Government's Covid-19 response today in Parliament.
After spending two minutes defending decisions made in the past two years, the former deputy prime minister turned his attention towards Seymour's recent comments.
"I'm going to offer you something, Mr Seymour, because it was extremely hard governing through Covid," Robertson said.
"If you talk to any leader in the world, the kinds of life and death decisions that needed to be made, the kind of support that needed to be provided, the kind of understanding to predict the future when we didn't have the modelling.
"All of that was extremely challenging work."
Robertson probed Seymour, asking if he "might want to reflect" on the comments.
John Campbell interviewed the former Prime Minister on the eve of her farewell speech in Parliament. (Source: 1News)
"I wonder whether Mr Seymour might want to reflect on the comments that have been reported today, where he described Jacinda Ardern as being too dumb to be the prime minister.
"That's the kind of man you are, Mr Seymour! And I don't want to give you any more air time."
During his chat with Key - the son of former Prime Minister John Key - Seymour said Jacinda Ardern wasn't "clever enough" to be a prime minister.
"I've never had any malice towards her. I think she was way out of her depth. I think she didn't want to be prime minister. I didn't think she should have been prime minister.
"I don't think she frankly was clever enough to be prime minister," Seymour said.
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Responding to Robertson's fiery attack, the ACT leader emphasised that he was saying Ardern was "too dumb to participate in a global conspiracy".
"I actually said she was too dumb to participate in a global conspiracy, and it's wrong for the Finance Minister to mislead people about my comments."
The fiery exchange in the house happened amid debate over annual review reports from Parliament's select committees - a process that occurs before the year's Budget.
Jacinda Ardern is returning to Wellington tomorrow to give her valedictory speech as she farewells Parliament after 15 years as an MP.
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