close
MENU
Hot Topic EARNINGS
Hot Topic EARNINGS
2 mins to read

Key disagrees with Smith - prefers MPs' spending public

Prime Minister John Key prefers details of individual MPs travel spending be made public but says it is up to Speaker Lockwood Smith if he wants to withhold that information.Dr Smith announced yesterday that international travel rebates claimed by MPs wou

NZPA and NBR staff
Sat, 30 Oct 2010

Prime Minister John Key prefers details of individual MPs travel spending be made public but says it is up to Speaker Lockwood Smith if he wants to withhold that information.

Dr Smith announced yesterday that international travel rebates claimed by MPs would now be made public quarterly as a bulk amount, rather than individually.

He said the approach was being taken because the cost of that travel was funded by MPs, with set amounts coming out of their overall salary package for the purpose.

Mr Key said he had told Dr Smith he thought the transparency of releasing the individual amounts was a good thing.

Having opened the figures up the public there was a risk they would see this latest move as reversal of that transparency, Mr Key said.

"Once the genie is out of the bottle it's hard to put it back in," Mr Key told media in Vietnam where he was attending the East Asia Summit.

"Logically the Speaker is absolutely right -- there's a component which is already paid for effectively by MPs... in the end it's the Speaker's decision."

A move to cash compensation for MPs was the right way to go and would help solve the problem, Mr Key said.

Future changes to MPs remuneration were likely and could include converting the travel allowance to cash, he said.

"Compensation is effectively reduced by the private component and therefore when an MP uses that private component they're not actually taking a benefit because they fundamentally paid for it.

"But I think selling that to the public might be ... interesting," Mr Key said.

Remuneration Authority figures show there was $1,176,812 deducted from MPs salaries for international air travel in the 2009/2010 year, and $432,989 in expenditure on rebates. For the first quarter of the 2010/1011 year those figures were $294,203 and $76,589.

Under the new system, Rodney Hide would have been spared the intense public scrutiny he was subject to after it emerged he had clocked up big international travel bills with his partner and claimed the rebate.

Dr Smith said he disagreed with suggestions the travel rebate was a perk, as it was something MPs had paid for themselves, and he had been troubled by what he considered to be a lack of integrity in the information released under the original system.

MPs start contributing to travel expenses when they enter Parliament, and can claim a 25 percent rebate on international travel after their first term, with the rebate growing to 90 percent for senior MPs.

Dr Smith also said legal expenses run up by MPs and paid for by the taxpayer would be made public quarterly from now on once litigation had been settled.

NZPA and NBR staff
Sat, 30 Oct 2010
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Key disagrees with Smith - prefers MPs' spending public
9895
false