By Political Reporter Patrick Gower
Judith "Crusher" Collins and Andrew "Big Man" Little have been in quite a scrap over the ACC controversy lately.
But is it just a curtain-raiser for a much bigger rumble down the track – Collins as leader of National and Little as leader of Labour?
They've certainly been going at it in the House.
Then there's Collins' defamation action - after Little fingered her for leaking the details of Bronwyn Pullar and Michelle Boag.
But Little hasn't backed away.
In fact he's just taken it up a notch on the issue of whether Collins put the Police onto Boag and Pullar for blackmail as well.
Little - under the protection of Parliamentary privilege - accused Collins of telling ACC chair John Judge and chief executive Ralph Stewart to "go after Michelle Boag".
"She urged and pressured and pressed the chief executive and chairman of the board to make a complaint to the police and that's what they did," Little said.
"She told them to do it and then when the police came back and said there's nothing here... She hung them out to dry."
So the battle rolls on.
A lot has been made of the bad blood and power plays going on between Collins and Boag in the ACC controversy.
But what about the tension between Collins and Little?
Little, the union boss fresh to Parliament, has used the controversy to put himself on the map.
Collins is an older hand around this place and has used it to display her incredible – what I call – "political resilience".
She danced on the head of a pin and has incredible defensive game - based around attack.
A lot of it is fashioned around her tough-girl image which the public has been lapping up for years.
The Left hate her - that just shows how good she is.
One day when John Key decides to move on, someone is going to want to step up.
Steven Joyce is of course the other option.
Collins has a public persona that has both toughness and deft touches of humour that could fly with the electorate.
That's why there's a lot for her to lose in the ACC controversy.
It has become a total mess with half of the board either being thrown out or walking out.
The chief executive is gone too.
Now debate has shifted back again to the overall philosophical underpinnings of ACC and Crusher needs to get control of it.
ACC has become "an issue".
If she does that she'll keep her place in the queue behind Key rather than crashing and burning like Hekia Parata.
As for Little, he may be a greenhorn but hasn't exactly looked like one in the House.
He's got to make up some mana after getting a spanking from Jonathan Young in the New Plymouth electorate race.
Maybe he does that by taking over Rongotai from Annette King and raising his profile in a by-election next year.
That will be a hotly contested nomination with plenty of internal Labour blood-letting and Little will have to call in every favour and use every union crony he's got to win it.
So depending on future events we certainly could see Collins versus Little, not just in the court for defamation but in the court of public opinion - maybe at the 2017 election?
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