Airline boss backs MPs over minibars

Air New Zealand chairman John Palmer has offered support to beleaguered MPs, saying mini-bar bills are "just part of commercial life".

The professional director said yesterday that he felt sorry for some MPs over criticism received for claiming expenses such as alcohol in hotel rooms.

"I've got a good deal of sympathy for some of them, as someone who travels a fair bit and who does actually have a beer out of the hotel fridge and puts it on the hotel account, and spends a huge amount of time away."

Often hotel rooms were places of work, where staff made progress on decisions with colleagues or guests, Mr Palmer said. "That's just part of commercial life."

The comments were made to NZX shareholders at the company's annual meeting in Wellington, but the sharemarket business does not seem to share his views.

An NZX spokeswoman said while its staff were able to claim the costs of some corporate entertainment, the policy was that personal expenses, such as mini-bar tabs, were "absolutely not" covered by the company.

Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke said the firm also took a different line to the one given by Mr Palmer. The retailer had buyers who travelled the world, often away for months at a time, but personal expenses had to be covered themselves.

"If you dirty your own clothes and you need the laundry, you pay for it yourself; if you want to have a beer, that's fine, you can have 19 beers if you want, you've just got to pay for it yourself," Mr Duke said. "It's really not that complicated."

The comments smacked of "penny pinching" by staff on executive salaries, Mr Duke said.

"I don't pay my people penny half-pennies, and neither does John. What does a beer cost? Three bucks?"

As Air New Zealand's chairman, Mr Palmer was paid a director's fee of $242,000 last year, the airline's 2009 annual report shows, while his fee as chairman of Solid Energy was $80,000. At insurer AMP, where he is a non-executive director and chair of the remuneration committee, he was paid $323,000 in 2009.

Search MPs' expenses: www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/mps-expenses

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