MPs' travel: $120,000 each week

BY MARTIN KAY

MPs are clocking up nearly $120,000 a week in travel as public servants are being told to tighten their belts.

The cost of airfares, taxis, car hire and mileage for MPs who are not ministers has been made public for the first time. Spending on accommodation was also revealed, with MPs promising disclosure every three months.

Spending on parliamentary travel and accommodation is not subject to the Official Information Act, and MPs had until now resisted calls to provide details.

Though they broke new ground with yesterday's release, they are steadfastly refusing to make public how they use annual allowances of at least $14,800 each for out-of-pocket expenses.

The travel and accommodation figures followed mounting pressure for MPs to lift the lid on their expenses, but Speaker Lockwood Smith said it was unlikely that would happen.

He was satisfied travel and accommodation expenses were being used legitimately, but signalled the rules could be tightened. "There's some things I'll be watching just to satisfy myself the boundaries are tidy." He would not say which areas were of concern, but travel and accommodation must be for parliamentary purposes.

Labour's use of taxpayer-funded flights to ferry MPs to Auckland for the Mt Albert by-election campaign, with other business tacked on, could spark calls for tighter rules.

Yesterday's figures covered the first six months of this year and showed MPs spent $1,045,988 on taxis, car hire and reimbursement for mileage. Some of that was for chauffeur-driven ministerial cars available to Opposition leader Phil Goff and Dr Smith. Mr Goff's use of the cars saw him spend more than $79,000 on land travel, putting him top of the travel and accommodation list for MPs who are not ministers, with $124,480.

MPs spent more than $2m on air travel, $762,000 on accommodation in Wellington and $130,000 for accommodation elsewhere in New Zealand. A further $223,248 was for travel related to the international parliamentary exchange programme, taking the total to $4.1m.

The figures exclude spending by ministers for travel and accommodation, which topped $3.5m. This included $1.5m spent on the chauffeur-driven BMW ministerial cars and more than $1m for international travel.

When ministerial spending is included, Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully was the biggest-spending MP, his $263,000 international travel bill taking his total to more than $353,000.

TOP 10 SPENDERS

1.Phil Goff (Labour): $124,480.

"As the leader of the Opposition, I have a responsibility to travel around New Zealand to listen to the issues and concerns of communities."

2.Chris Carter (Labour): $82,410.

Did not return calls but Labour MP Trevor Mallard defended his spending on the grounds Mr Carter had high travel costs as foreign affairs spokesman.

3.Hone Harawira (Maori Party): $79,515.

"I think the people of Tai Tokerau would probably say 'way to go Hone, you're doing the business, you're getting out there, seeing the people, you're pushing the issues that we want you to push'."

4.Lockwood Smith (Speaker, National): $69,692.

Has high travel costs as he lives two hours' drive from Auckland airport - though he kept costs down by driving himself as much as possible.

5.Rick Barker (Labour): $67,817.

Did not return calls, but Mr Mallard said he had high airfare costs as he travelled extensively because of his spokesmanship areas, which include veterans affairs.

6.Roger Douglas (ACT): $62,663.

Unrepentant about using his entitlement as a past MP to a 90 per cent airfare subsidy for a holiday he and his wife took in Britain. "It's something that I would have been able to do whether I was an MP or not."

7.Kelvin Davis (Labour): $59,797.

Did not return calls.

8.Shane Jones: (Labour): $56,555.

"Therein lies the problem of going backwards and forwards from Kerikeri most weeks."

9.Ross Robertson (Labour): $55,863.

Refused to comment.

10.Chester Borrows (National): $54,634.

"My air travel includes a trip to the UK and New York ... looking at prison inmate re-entry and rehabilitation. The air travel on that was about $15,000 and that's what puts me up there."

Expenses incurred for overseas travel as part of the international parliamentary contact programme have been excluded. The list also excludes ministerial expenses.

- © Fairfax NZ News