Editorial: Just like all the rest

OPINION: News reports of the taxpayer-funded trip Rodney Hide took to Europe and the United States with his girlfriend have described the ACT leader as a "former" perkbuster.

No description could be more apt.

Mr Hide has made the transition from perkbuster to perkmeister. The old political stagers who scowled their disapproval when he launched his one-man campaign to do away with MPs' perks will be smiling their approval. The maverick has joined the herd at the trough.

The local government minister cannot justify using up to $25,000 of public money to take his girlfriend, Louise Crome, a national squash representative, on a super-city fact-finding tour. That is something he has effectively acknowledged.

Subsidising the personal travel of MPs and their partners is a "silly anachronism", he says. But he also says he sees no point in being a "martyr". As a statement of principle, it's difficult to think of anything less convincing – it's not right, but others are doing it so he will too.

By way of mitigation Mr Hide says he has a hectic schedule and it is hard for ministers to maintain a relationship. That may be, but ministers are not alone in working long hours or missing out on time with their families. They, at least, are financially compensated for their sacrifices. Many of their constituents are not.

Mr Hide's "poor me" rationale is the same mantra MPs have used for decades to justify fattening their salary packets with cheap travel, nonsensical allowances and generous superannuation top-ups.

But it is even less justifiable now, when ministers like Mr Hide are demanding savings from the public sector, than it was 12 years ago when a brash new MP challenged the established order by asking: "Why should MPs swan off all over the world on holiday, having their travel heavily subsidised by the taxpayer, who has struggled to save all year to go on a caravan jaunt to the Coromandel at Christmas?"

That MP was Mr Hide. Sadly, 12 years in the comfort of Parliament's padded seats appear to have convinced him that he owes his loyalty to himself, not the public. The only hope is that public outrage will convince him that the financial benefits of junketing are not worth the public opprobrium that comes with them.

There are tentative signs that is happening with some parliamentarians. In the first half of this year Mr Hide's ACT colleague Sir Roger Douglas racked up a $55,494 travel bill, after using his parliamentary entitlements to holiday in Britain with his wife. In the next three months he was able to make do with $11,839.

Meanwhile Labour MP Chris Carter, who found it necessary to spend $71,613 in the six months to June 30 on travel in his capacity as Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, got by with $13,549 in the third quarter.

If nothing else the new practice of publishing MPs' travel and accommodation expenses demonstrates that sunlight is the best disinfectant. It is to be hoped it has the same effect on Mr Hide.

If not, in two years' time, voters will get a chance to show whether they share his views on the value of funding Ms Crome's international travel. He would be wise not to test their tolerance.

- © Fairfax NZ News