Newshub-Reid Research Poll: The race relations debate - Kiwis think Judith Collins is being divisive

Parliament has been a tinderbox with the race relations debate reaching fever pitch - and Newshub can reveal Judith Collins' rhetoric is not resonating. 

The National Party leader's sole focus of late has been doggedly claiming the Government is introducing Māori separatism by stealth. 

But unlike former National leader Don Brash's Orewa speech which skyrocketed the flailing party in the polls, it seems 17 years on the rhetoric has flopped. 

In our latest Newshub-Reid Research Poll, we asked voters: Do you think Labour is being separatist, and do you think National is being divisive?

Most - 43.6 percent - said no, Labour is not being separatist. 

And again, most - 44.5 percent - said yes, National is being divisive. That includes 23.5 percent of National voters - one in five think the party is being divisive.

Conversely, one in five Labour voters think their party is being separatist.

Newshub-Reid Research Poll: The race relations debate - Kiwis think Judith Collins is being divisive

But Collins won't let up. 

"I'm not going to sit around and watch this Government divide our country up based on race," she told Newshub. 

"I will not stop. I will not stop while there is breath in my body."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is painting it as a political tactic. 

"It has appeared to be a political strategy, which I think is sad," she said. 

In recent weeks, Collins has been picking apart He Puapua, a report commissioned to advise how to give effect to our commitments under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The National Government signed up to that declaration in 2010. 

Collins has argued the Labour Government hasn't been upfront about its plans. 

"It's really important that people know what the Government is doing behind its back," she told Newshub.  

But Ardern rejects the notion that Māori partnership is "segregation", which is what Collins labelled the newly-announced Māori Health Authority. 

"The idea of segregation is just wrong," Ardern said. 

The poll was conducted between May 7-13 with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.