National MP Judith Collins isn't showing support for fining parents of school dropouts if they don't enter work, education or training - something her party is understood to be considering.
Newshub understands the National Party is working on a social development discussion document for the public to provide feedback on before the 2020 election.
It's believed to propose forcing gang members to prove they don't have illegal income before getting a benefit and fining the parents of early school leavers up to $3000 if their child doesn't enter work, training or future education.
National leader Simon Bridges confirmed on Thursday that the discussion document was being worked on and it would include proposals about moving people from "dependency to work".
"Good to see discussion on our upcoming welfare discussion document today. Getting people from dependency to work & opportunity is better for everyone," he wrote on Twitter.
Collins told The AM Show that the first she heard about the school leavers idea - which isn't official policy - was on Thursday.
"This hasn't been released as any sort of policy as I understand it. I knew nothing about it until I heard you guys on Newshub running it as a story," she said on Friday.
"We have got a lot of policy documents coming out, a lot of discussion documents, and the idea is that when we go into this next election we are not going to say 'look vote for us, we can get you 320 working groups.'"
Asked if it was something she could get behind, Collins didn't show support.
"It's an interesting idea. It's not for me, it's not for me... I've just never heard about it before...It's pretty hard to do it."
Labour MP Michael Wood said Collins - who has been touted as a future party leader - had just ended any chance the idea had of becoming official policy.
"I think you have just seen a National Party policy idea squashed live on air," Wood said on The AM Show - to which Collins said she didn't "think it was National party policy at all".
Wood said if the proposal had been enacted earlier, it would have cost the parents of some now prominent Kiwis.
"Under this proposal, the parents of Lorde and the parents of Sonny Bill Williams would have been fined several thousand dollars because of what their parents were doing. It is completely insane," he said.
The National Party has already released several discussion documents in the lead-up to the 2020 election. Their economy discussion document proposed cutting regulations.
Newshub.
