Editorial: End for shonky trips

OPINION: If our politicians haven't yet managed to grasp the message that the end is nigh for their spectacular culture of entitlement, there can be little hope they ever will.

The antics of Rodney Hide – who has taken his girlfriend on trips around the world at the taxpayers' expense – and Hone Harawira – who absconded from an official visit to take his wife to Paris for a sightseeing trip – have drawn fresh attention to the travel perks MPs are entitled to.

Mr Harawira – who followed up with a blatantly racist email to one of his detractors – is still to be punished by his party. He has absconded from official trips before and the solution for him is simple – he should not be able to travel overseas on Government business again.

Mr Hide has punished himself with a fulsome apology that was as spectacular in its scope as was the effrontry behind his defence last week of his free-spending ways.

His apology on Sunday – almost unprecedented in its tone – followed a week of staunch defence for his decision to take his girlfriend Louise Crome on on a fact-finding mission about super cities in Britain, Canada and the United States. He had argued – correctly – that his partner was entitled to travel with him. He also argued that he worked very hard and had little time for his relationships. Therefore, according to Mr Hide's logic, it was in taxpayers' best interests for him to maintain his relationship by paying for Ms Crome to fly around the world with him. A romantically happy Mr Hide makes for a good minister, the only catch being that the taxpayer has to pick up the bill. Mr Hide was politically torpedoed below the waterline when it emerged that he had taken Ms Crome with him on a taxpayer-funded trip to Hawaii, but had quietly repaid the money at a later date.

To Mr Hide's credit he has admitted that he was completely wrong to defend the trips in an apology as grovelling as his defence was robust. It's an old chestnut, but his antics do leave onlookers wondering whether there are two Mr Hides. It was definitely the bad doctor that we saw last week.

At the heart of the Hide and Harawira trips – both, coincidentally in pursuit of romance – is the issue of expenses and the idea that politicians need to jet around the world compiling reports in order to be effective. This is a nonsense. In reality overseas trips are a perk, and the taxpayer should not have to pay to subsidise spouses.

Mr Hide does not need to travel around the world to find the best solutions for Auckland. And what Mr Harawira gleaned from his trip to Brussels is unlikely to change the course of history at home.

Prime Minister John Key has said that MPs have to get used to a new world of transparency. He'd be wise to make it easier by just outlawing shonky-looking trips at the outset.

- © Fairfax NZ News