MPs get 'last hurrah' at taxpayers' cost

Prime Minister Helen Clark today defended a trip to eastern Europe by a group of MPs, playing down the fact four out of the five of them are retiring at the election.

Row over taxpayer funded trip

 

ACT leader Rodney Hide, who became Parliament's "perk buster" when he was elected, also believes that while the trip may be a "bad look" to the taxpayer, it is about building relationships overseas.

He also finds it understandable that parties are sending those less busy with this year's election.

Speaker Margaret Wilson says New Zealand needs to build its relationships with other countries as well as reciprocate when other countries send people here.

Clark told reporters the decision to send outgoing MPs was because everyone else was busy in election year.

But she said the trip was about building relationships for New Zealand and its Parliament, rather than individuals.

"The issue is it's not about benefit for MPs, it's about benefit for New Zealand. That's what the Speaker's trip is, it's diplomatic outreach for New Zealand," she said.

Four of the five MPs chosen by their parties to represent Parliament on this year's Speaker's tour next month will leave politics at this year's general election.

Led by Speaker Margaret Wilson, the tour party comprises National MPs Brian Connell and Katherine Rich, Labour MP and former minister Marian Hobbs and New Zealand First MP Peter Brown.

Of the five, only Brown has not announced his retirement from politics.

Wilson signalled her retirement last month and plans a return to academia.

Rich has said she is leaving politics to spend more time with her children.

Connell, whose Rakaia seat has been replaced by the new seat of Selwyn, has decided not to contest the new seat for National.

Hobbs stood aside from the Cabinet in 2005 and will not contest her Wellington Central seat this year.

The five MPs, plus two support staff, will fly business class to Europe via Singapore and Milan before heading to Eastern Europe for a two-week visit, leaving on April 18 and returning on May 2.

They will spend time in Warsaw, Poland, before heading south to Krakow, from where they will visit Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp.

They will then fly to Prague, in the Czech Republic, for three days before flying south to the Hungarian capital of Budapest. They will fly home via Frankfurt.

Travel agencies contacted yesterday quoted the cost of the business-class return flights on Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa at $9842 a person.

Connell's presence on the tour could be controversial as he has been suspended from National's caucus since October 2006 and has not spoken in Parliament for more than a year.

Connell said he had been invited by leader John Key to take one of National's places.

"It was very pleasant _ a nice change of circumstances. The invitations have been few and far between," Connell said.

Hobbs said she was looking forward to the trip.

"I don't know too much about the purpose. I think it's about MMP. I'm not sure."

Hobbs said she had agreed to go because she was leaving Parliament and therefore not out "campaigning like fury" like other MPs during the recess.

She agreed the trip was "a last hurrah" for the departing MPs. "I think it will be lovely."

Rich said the trip would be a good opportunity to represent Parliament overseas.

A spokeswoman for the Speaker's office said the trip was an opportunity to establish relations with countries that were part of an enlarged Europe.

The tour would support New Zealand's trade interests and also look at constitutional arrangements.