Nikki Kaye is denying she has ambitions to be leader of the National Party after being quizzed on the topic by Duncan Garner.
National's Education spokesperson was on The AM Show discussing her upcoming education road show.
- 'Disempowering parents': Mixed reactions to education shake-up
- Education overhaul recommended, as New Zealand schools found to be 'slipping'
The road show will involve talking to parents about Labour's proposed Tomorrow's Schools reform, which Ms Kaye said she has "serious concerns" about.
Garner believes road shows are firmly leadership territory and asked if Ms Kaye was in fact testing the waters for a leadership run.
But Ms Kaye said she's not doing that at all and took the chance to praise current National Party leader Simon Bridges
"I didn't actually vote for Simon but can I say this, he's got the hardest job in New Zealand.
"I actually think if you look at what he's done, he's not only united us, we've got great policy coming out."
Ms Kaye publicly supported Amy Adams' bid for the leadership in the contest eventually won by Mr Bridges.
She said she's been asked about running for leader in the past, but it's not on her radar for now.
"I've had people ask me to do that... more members of the public, but that just naturally happens when you're on front bench.
"I want to say again, if you look at what Simon's done, he's not only done the policy work, he's very good at attack. He's had a pretty tough time with some of the situations we heard last year."
She said a National MP could have asked her to run, but not recently.
Ms Kaye said as National's education spokesperson it would be "negligent" for her to not do the road show.
But she will be keeping an eye on the costs, considering the debacle involving leader Mr Bridges' expenses from his road show.
- Simon Bridges' roadshow cash splash: $113k in taxpayer money on limos and hotels
- Simon Bridges says Jami-Lee Ross leaked his expenses
- The Jami-Lee Ross mega-scandal: A timeline
"I have got some volunteers helping me, so I'll be trying to keep costs down, but public meetings are usually pretty business as usual for MPs so it will be a matter of just balancing my expenses."
Newshub.
