An Auditor-General's inquiry into Pansy Wong's travel claims does not appear to be on the cards.An independent investigation of travel claims by Mrs Wong and her husband Sammy was ordered by Speaker Lockwood Smith after it was revealed that on a trip to C
An Auditor-General's inquiry into Pansy Wong's travel claims does not appear to be on the cards.
An independent investigation of travel claims by Mrs Wong and her husband Sammy was ordered by Speaker Lockwood Smith after it was revealed that on a trip to China in 2008 Mr Wong was involved in a business deal.
That trip was made with a 90 percent taxpayer-funded rebate on their airfares, and it is against the rules to use the allowance for private business.
The report covered claims for the past 10 years and found no evidence the rebate had been misused on other occasions.
Mrs Wong has apologised and paid back the $474 rebate for the China trip. She earlier resigned as minister when the allegations came to light.
The Labour Party has called for an Auditor-General's inquiry, and in Parliament today leader Phil Goff asked Prime Minister John Key if he would order one.
Mr Goff said Mr Key had set a precedent when he ordered an Auditor-General's inquiry into the spending of Phil Heatley, who resigned from Cabinet in February over misuse of his ministerial credit card use. He was reinstated the following month after the Auditor-General's inquiry found he had spent $1402 of taxpayers' money wrongly but did not intentionally break the rules.
Mr Key said as Minister of Ministerial Services he had been directly responsible for Mr Heatley.
"In the case of Pansy Wong, that was a matter of the Parliamentary service, therefore there was a report sanctioned by the Speaker," Mr Key said.
"But, I say to the member, if he has any information that he feels is of relevance he's welcome to refer that to the Auditor-General himself."
Mr Goff said Mr Key was ducking the question.
"The Prime Minister won't step up and take responsibility for how taxpayers' money is spent by his own ministers," Mr Goff said.
"John Key should refer the Wong scandal to the Auditor-General for a more thorough investigation -- just as he did in the case of Phil Heatley."
