Judith Collins has been called out by a Tasmanian journalist for her facetious reference to the state as Australia's "poor cousin".
The Opposition leader made the derisive quips about the country's smallest state during a media stand-up on Thursday - but it appears the correspondent failed to see the funny side of Collins' comments.
In an article for Australian Associated Press (AAP) published shortly after the stand-up, New Zealand-based Tasmanian journalist Ben McKay slammed the National Party leader for "another off-script rant of a failing campaign".
In a tweet, McKay also implied the comments had hit a nerve, writing: "It's the second last day of NZ's election campaign and Judith Collins has gone off script by taking a whack at ... Tasmania!? Says she doesn't want NZ to end up like the "poor cousin" like Tasmania is of Australia. Ouch #nzpol [sic]."
During the stand-up, Collins described her campaign as "relentlessly positive" before referencing the Australian state.
"It's been relentless - relentlessly positive. That's what we've been doing. Every day has been another day to go out and share a vision for New Zealand that is not another Tasmanian one, but is actually about us being a wonderfully exciting place to be," she told reporters.
"We don't want to be the poor cousin of the rest of Australia as such, as poor Tasmania is."
Collins later clarified she thought Tasmania was a "lovely part of the world", saying it was reminiscent of the Waikato prior to the ongoing construction of the region's expressway.
"I thought it was lovely - it reminded me of the Waikato before we had wonderful things like the excellent road of national significance, the expressway," she said.
"I think it's a lovely part of the world but do you necessarily want to go there with your high-tech business? Possibly not.
"I want New Zealand to be a high-tech industry, I want us to be the tech-centre of the Pacific and I want people to say, 'hey, it's not only the most beautiful place in the world, but guess what - you can get great jobs there and you can get twice what everyone else gets paid'."
In a second tweet on Thursday afternoon, McKay shared the story - published by 7 News - saying the "full quotes are quite something".
Stuff's chief political reporter Henry Cooke later tweeted that Collins had admitted the line was "a direct troll of Ben", to which McKay responded: "My blood [is] still boiling", alongside a joking cartoon giphy.
Collins also pitched in her two cents, tweeting that she "gave [McKay] something to write" with a smiley face. Five minutes later, she tweeted, "hehe", alongside an animation of SpongeBob Squarepants anxiously chewing his fingernails.
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll, conducted and released in late September, had Collins' Opposition party polling at just 29.6 percent of the vote - languishing behind Labour, who polled at 50.1 percent - indicating it may have the popularity to govern alone without forming a coalition.
