Rodney's apology leaves nowhere to Hide
Anyone care to guess how much longer the MPs' travel perk can last?
Now that Rodney Hide has done the decent thing and apologised and paid back the $22,000 or so he used of taxpayers' money taking his partner overseas with him, and the prime minister has said he never uses the perk and always pays his own way when on holiday with the family, has this "entitlement'' become all but unusable?
Negotiated a long time ago, back in the 1970s I think, to supposedly compensate for a lack of a pay rise, this long-standing perk of office was closed off to new entrants after the 1999 intake - except while they remain in office.
That means the number of former MPs able to qualify will gradually diminish, but in the meantime there are still plenty who are entitled - I think around 150 or so, including their spouses.
Then there's the current crop of 122, of whom all but 30 new entrants will get at least some subsidy.
Now, there aren't very many rules on when the subsidy can be used, and it often used for work trips by Opposition MPs in particular who don't qualify for official ministerial travel. I doubt this will be phased out, and neither should it be in my opinion.
But that still leaves the straight-out holidays like the one Hide took to Hawaii, and the trip to London his ACT Party colleague Sir Roger Douglas took with his wife earlier this year.
Given Rodney has now coughed up, it will be interesting to see whether Sir Rog follows suit. He hung up on one of my colleagues who rang him last night with this perfectly reasonable question.
The other two who haven't received as much press are United Future leader Peter Dunne and Agriculture Minister David Carter, who have also used the travel perk to take their spouses away with them this year.
Will they pay the money back, too? Should they?
The problem for the MPs is that the public's attitude seems to be changing faster than Parliament's rules have allowed for, so something that is completely within the rules and seen as legitimate even six months ago is now fast approaching political suicide.
Now we have the new disclosure regime, it will be a very brave MP indeed who is prepared to use his or her perk for personal and/or spousal travel without a very good reason.
While the media isn't given a breakdown of personal versus official travel for each MP, we do get the totals for them and their spouse, and then it's just a question of asking them whether any of it was personal travel. It's not something they can hide - although Rodney came close when he omitted to disclose the Hawaii trip until asked a direct question by a journalist.
Of course, there is going to be another side to any changes in the travel perk, and that's likely to be in superannuation or salary for MPs.
They can, and will, argue that the travel perk has been all but removed already since it's become untenable to use it in most circumstances. It's likely they will look for compensation in other areas.
And that, unfortunately, is always the quid-pro. Because if the Speaker decides the alternative is to bulk-fund the travel perk into MPs' salaries, as has been done with other allowances, it's likely that the lazy MPs will continue to sit on their backsides and pocket the extra coin, while the busy ones will simply end up dipping into their own pockets.
Personally, I'd oppose more bulk funding and simply suggest the rules were tightened so that only work trips were permissable under the travel perk without the permission of the party leader.
All international trips should then be detailed on the material now published every three months, along with a notation as to whether the trip was private or official.
That ought to see the travel bill diminish considerably.
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Colin, I'm going to go further than you and propose that we do nothing. That no more rules around travel are changed. If an MP wants to go and see the Louvre, off they go, but everyone gets to know all about it, and vote accordingly.
You mentioned 'lazy' MP's. Would an analysis of those who've never used their travel perks reveal a bunch of unimaginative dullards with no sense of adventure?
Colin
I was under the impression Key asked for a report on the perks and a list of who has used them over a period of time (unsure how long a period), has this been shelved or not been completed as yet?
9yrs of Labour, and only now is Key making it transparent and all the lefties are up in arms, what about Labours 9yrs, will we never get to see the skeletons in their perk cupboard?
Clark/Cullen never wanted this made public, wonder why?
I agree with matt's last comment #2
Are you saying Colin the ones who have NOT used this perk, are Idiots...or to be commended with tax payers $$$
Can't have it both ways, give MP's more money to pay for travel, and also some will not do any travel and get extra $$'s
Perhaps only make the extra money available to ministers or opposition shadow ministers?....or alternatively, one big lump sum that is administered independantly of parliament, and approvals/denials come from this trust board, that way no left/right angst finger pointing can be attributed to who ever is in Govt at the time, afterall i think we know the sitting govt will always use more tax funded travel as they are in the driving seat...whether it's Labour OR National (and who ever is in parliament with them with portfolios of depts).
Eddie #3: "Clark/Cullen never wanted this made public, wonder why?"
I'll answer that. They never wanted it made public, Eddie, because they're the bogeyman, and they were too busy hiding under the bed to frighten small children, and lurking down dark alleyways on a friday night, waiting for law abiding citizens with jobs to come past, and then mugging them for their tax returns. And then when you were done talking rubbish, pointing and laughing at you, but that day never came, and now we have a completely different government and you're still wittering on about things that happened over a year ago to people who are no longer MP's.
Lets demand Chris Carter pay back his partners share of his mega travel expences as a minister in the last govt. Look forward to his 50 thousand odd dollar cheque.
Can we discuss this one too Colin? Can we also have some information on the amount raked up during the last govt? Would be nice to have something to compare against.
Personally if they are entitled, good on them taking their entitlement, would not imagine many people would forfit their entitlements and paying them back after taking them legaly. Including most on this blog, including the most indignant.
Phil Goff ought to watch that sanctimonious tone he loves to adopt. OK if he wants to be a Methodist lay preacher but most of us know that the last 9 years must have cost us a fortune if only for Helen and Peter's skiing and mountain-climbing holidays in Norway etc.
Our public figures surely should know by now that if the media in the UK gets on to a juicy story our media will soon be stoutly coming up the rear. Just like our media cliches such as speeding cars and John Key's showers which tediously give Colin such entertainment.
haahaa, my god!...a truer passage of words strung together from Matt, the most eloquent part of a posting he has ever had on the subject of Clark/Cullen...Matt, i take my hat off to you for finally seeing the light, thank you for your honesty at realising the damage this 'laural and Hardy' act inflicted on NZ.
"because they're the bogeyman, and they were too busy hiding under the bed to frighten small children, and lurking down dark alleyways on a friday night, waiting for law abiding citizens with jobs to come past, and then mugging them for their tax returns"
Interesting that the tories wanted Helen to sack Winston....but the nats are happy to hold oh to rodney....hmmmm typical hypocritical nats!!
Interesting also that the right wingers try to avoid any discussion over their mates ripping us off by going back into the past....ok how about Muldoon running the country into the ground, then refusing to following the instrucings of the incoming Labour government, to the extent his own party wanted to remove him as PM.....may as well bring up the past also!
We lose ourselves in these debates - we cannot see the wood for the trees. Our overriding problem is the ever-increasing income gap and the social malfunction to which it gives rise.
Bulk funding means less auspices, less control and more opportunity for misdirection of funds and manipulation of outcomes - in effect it is a move away from transparency.
Compared to minority shareholders, stockholders and Mum-n-Dad savers, we voters have it made ; we know it ; and we exercise our rights to correct, criticise and condemn. All this debate is about remuneration, perquisites, elitism , privilege ; in other words it is about the income/wealth gap. We are confining the debate to the perspective of voters and turn a blind-eye to the corporates, but they are leading the way - all of this Hide stuff is "catch-up" stuff.
Only in a number of cases are voters who have been swindled by the politicians and the public sector also savers and investors who have been swindled by the corporates - the latter do not have a three-yearly ballot box and have left their interests in the hands of others for protection.
What we are forgetting is that it is all one and the same scenario - the ever-widening income gap.
The positive steps would be to stop the junkets (whether they be those of politicians, government departments or corporates), restrict the travel of spouses and associates and regulate for better control of the corporates.
All this "padding" widens the income gap and lowers productivity, which we profess to desire to improve - don't rely on Rodney Hide, Don Brash and the Act party - it will all move the other way.
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We need full disclosure of all travel by Mps and their spouses/girlfriends/boyfriends etc etc. End of story. If any MP don't like it - easy - get another job.