Perks for former GGs and PMs
I was an advocate of getting rid of the travel perks for former MPs, as there was little rationale for them.
However I do think that former Governor-Generals and Prime Ministers are in a different category. The Dom Post reports:
Former prime ministers and governors-general will rack up $920,000 in perks this year under a gold-plated scheme that provides unlimited free flights and annual payments.
The sum includes an estimated $520,000 in flights alone for one year, in a scheme that Internal Affairs predicts will cost taxpayers just over $10 million during the recipients’ lifetimes.
Former PM and GGs often have a continuing role in public life. They are asked to support various charities, speak at conferences etc. Jim Bolger says:
“One of the arguments [for the allowances] is you’re never not a public figure any more. You are always a public figure once you’ve been prime minister and-or governor-general. That carries with it certain responsibilities.”
The $10 million figure is the normal trick of take an annual figure and multiply it by expected years until death to make it sound much larger.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:11 am
You should have that one tagged under “beat ups”. I guess it makes media and public happy to bask in a moments ill informed outrage at the snouts in the trough but it really is a pointless story.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:15 am
And they don’t make any money from lecture tours, or presentations, or opening supermarkets?
Why can’t the body requiring their skills, advocacy, or presence pick up the tab?
How many other folks get an ongoing stipend?
Just more ammunition for any body sick of footing the bill!
August 12th, 2008 at 9:24 am
I think this is too much. These folks already have huge superannuation benefits… they should pay for their own flights.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:47 am
As it happens, anyone having an issue with this (or having an issue with those who have an issue) can have their say. The Law Commission recently announced a review of the Civil List Act (the law under which these and other allowances are paid) and is inviting public comment:
http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/ProjectGeneral.aspx?ProjectID=140
August 12th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I have no problem with the travell allowances for retired GG’s and Prime Ministers.
While I have no liking for the present incumbent of the office of Prime Minister, the allowances are all about respect for the offices held which is a diferent matter.
Travell entitlements for retired MPs etc are an entiely different matter.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:54 am
So … assuming there’s no time-value of money factor in here … $10 million divided by $920,000pa says Internal Affairs think Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley are going to die in just 10 years time
Wonder how Jenny feels about that?
August 12th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Hey boss, can I keep the company wheels and credit card once I’ve run your business into the ground?
August 12th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Sorry david, old bean we give them far too much deference already.
They work for us. We shouldn’t have to keep on working for them!
August 12th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Virtualmark>$10 million divided by $920,000pa says Internal Affairs think Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley are going to die in just 10 years time
Internal Affairs are sure that Bolger is only ever going to travel by train. He’s going to be a passionate advocate for Kiwirail and sustainability and wouldn’t even think of flying.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:30 am
How about some sort of system where the entitlement of and/or value of ongoing ‘perks’ provided are based on measures of performance (e.g. GDP growth, reduction in unemployment etc) – perhaps the measures should be portfolio/role specific.
Alternatively, maybe the question of whether or not a retiring member (not totally convinced that all MPs should be eligible) should be put to some sort of public vote.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Why on earth is anybody surprised at this?, when you spend a life time with your snout in the public trough it is only natural for you to want it to continue.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Why would a mere political appointment figurehead like the GG be entitled to similar perks to an elected PM?
August 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
The more I think about the Bolger/Kiwirail issue, the more I think I’m on to something…
National should fund Clark’s travel after she is booted from office in November. But, due to the need to reduce carbon emissions and because she spent the best part of a billion bucks on trains, they should only fund rail travel. I’d love to see Clark traveling from Wellington to Auckland on a rattly old rust bucket of a train that takes 12 hours or more to get from city to city. And which leaves her sitting at Muri for an hour because of “points failure”, as I did a few weeks ago. The rest of us can just fly or drive.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:54 am
davidp, if we are going to make it performance related then surely we’d just give her a donkey and a couple of bales of hay.
Just make sure that she pays her fart tax.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
The likelyhood of that person using a train, or pack animal in Manhatten is remote!
August 12th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
“Former PM and GGs often have a continuing role in public life. They are asked to support various charities, speak at conferences etc.”
(1) I don’t begrudge genuine charities a bit of support, but if you are a conference speaker and you have to travel to the conference, you should charge accordingly. (Charge the conference organisers, not me!)
(2) But anyone else is a “bludger” and they should be made to work for it!
August 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If I were Prime Minister John Key, I’d be ringing up Helen all the time saying that I needed to talk to her about something important. Like UN appointments, for instance. I’d say that it was too secret to discuss on an “open line”, just like they do in films. Next morning, Helen would be up bright and early and booked on the 6am train to Wellington. She’d be stuck for a couple of hours in Taihape with signals failure and a broken heater… assuming that trains go via Taihape… and arrive in to Wellington at 8pm.
By the time she arrived at the Beehive, the security guards would have been briefed to tell her I’d been called away on urgent Prime Ministerial business and we’d have to reschedule for next week. But that we’d booked her a bed somewhere grotty above a very noisy pub. Helen would be up all night listening to Winston and the other drunks getting a bit rowdy in the early hours of the morning, then be back on the train at 6am for the return trip to Auckland. It’d break down in Waiouru, but they’d eventually arrive in Auckland via coach at 3am the next day at which point Peter would be rung up to pick her up from the bus station.
I’d secretly video the whole thing and we’d have a laugh at cabinet meetings. Eventually we’d leak the videos on to YouTube.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
This just in…
John Key has announced that in line with his new policy for beneficiaries, former PMs and Governor Generals will be required to spend at least 15 hours per week in work, looking for work or re-training if they wish to continue qualifying for their post-employment benefits.
Key says “we’re a government that’s based on fairness for everyone and it would be ridiculous for us to make one set of rules for the disadvantaged and another for the privileged”.
When asked for comment, Helen Clark replied “Bloody Torries, they’ll take the food from a baby’s mouth. Some of us have worked damned hard for those post-employment perks and we’ve had to deny a lot of sick people their entitlements so that there’s money left in the budget to pay for those chauffeurs and air-tickets”
A Greens spokeperson said “we have no problem with the principle but believe that a taxpayer funded tandem with a volunteer rider to provide the motive force would have far less effect on the environment. We’d also move to introduce a lifetime of unlimited bus travel rather than air-travel for the same reasons”
Rodney Hide told our reporter “I’d be keen to drop the lifetime perks in return for dancing lessons and some kind of hairpiece subsidy”
Winston Peters said “Can I transfer the perks to an unnamed charitable trust?”
August 12th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I.M.O………It is an outrage especially in respect of Govenor Generals, though the Politicians have also been extravagantly rewarded before they leave office. Its hard to see how a goverment can in conscience deny urgently needed medication, or reduce various benefits while this situation continues.. It shouldn’t be left to the Law Commission to elevate the patronage of these people any higher. John KEY should announce that he will reduce it by 50% from it’s current level as part of his war on wastage and eliminate these perks altogether in respect of future holders of these offices. The carbon emissions component of the flights of these bludgers should never be a charge on the state either.
August 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Really don’t want Helun to be ‘Gold Elite’ like me, with Air NZ. Through time and forever. Those plastic knives won’t be in place for long!
;-P
August 12th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
How can it be right that Parliament set their own rewards package?
This should be the main focus of an Anti-Corruption panel, that is voted for by the populace annually.
We have to resume some control of these donkeys!
August 12th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Well I for one support the tax payer shelling out for Helen Clark to travel first class to any destination in the world.
As long as its one way.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Here DPF is advocating unlimited travel perks for former PMs and G-Gs. What next? Unlimited access to benefits for the unemployed?
I don’t see what the different category is here. “Unlimited” is just plain stupid and asking to be taken advantage of. There has to be a criteria David, and it applies in this case as well.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Five years of sucking tea and eating cakes.. Cut the odd ribbon.
Just what are the ongoing rewards for being a GG until death do us part ??
Can any one enlighten me ??