Green candidate Chloe Swarbrick and Maori Party candidate Carrie Stoddart-Smith fought back against ACT leader David Seymour on the issue of making Te Reo Maori compulsory in schools.

The ACT leader asked, "how many people love maths because of their experience at school?"

Ms Swarbrick hit back saying, "Te Reo is not maths".

Mr Seymour said if Te Reo was compulsory, "you're actually going to end up with low quality results" due to there not being enough people to teach the subject.

"You can actually damage a language through compulsion."