Winston Peters and Simon Bridges had the House laughing after a quick witted exchange during Question Time in Parliament today.

The Acting Prime Minister and the National Party leader were debating planned strike action from various sectors when Mr Bridges sought to use Mr Peters' bus analogy against him.

The Acting Prime Minister has said over the last two days that people will only wait for a bus when they know there will be one coming, making the analogy that people are only going on strike now because they have a Government that they think will listen.

"How will the bus turn up to the bus stop when all the drivers are on strike?" Mr Bridges asked drawing laughter.

"Well the first thing that you have to have of course is a bus for there to be drivers, and that's where we're different," Mr Peters shot back, also drawing laughs from both sides of the House.

The two had a long exchange over planned industrial action that include nurses striking, with Mr Bridges concerned that there will be a shutdown of critical services and saying that 32,000 people plan to, or have already, gone on strike from various sectors, more than the past nine years combined.