National Leader Simon Bridges has used his speech at Waitangi this afternoon to promise if elected this year, National would build a four-lane highway from Auckland to Whangarei.
But he immediately copped flak from New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters, who criticised Bridges for "politicising" Waitangi and "trampling all over the significance of the event".
"As Elvis would say: if you're looking for trouble, you've come to the right place," Peters said.
Bridges said: "What we see is they don't want an Opposition National Party that is able to say what it thinks on these things, as all oppositions have at Waitangi for a very long time.
Trying to shut him down, he said, was "very cynical".
"They don't want to answer the hard questions and they haven't delivered for New Zealanders."
The scrap comes just days after National ruled out working with NZ First in any capacity after this year's election.