MPs expenses to be disclosed
Well that is quick work. NZPA reports:
Just hours after Green Party members of Parliament released details of their travel and accommodation expenses, Speaker Lockwood Smith announced that a disclosure regime for all MPs’ expenses will be developed.
The Greens’ release yesterday followed a pledge by new co-leader Metiria Turei to disclose the information as pressure continues for MPs to be more transparent in how they spend taxpayers’ money.
Dr Smith said a cross-party meeting was held yesterday afternoon to discuss the extent to which expenses should be disclosed.
“A regime for public disclosure of expenses by MPs will be developed as quickly as possible,” he said.
“The committee was conscious of the public interest in this issue and agreed to develop a disclosure regime … Members of the cross-party committee will take the ideas discussed back to their respective parties.”
Kudos to the Greens for their voluntary disclosure. The NZPA story has one aspect wrong though:
The seven MPs not based in Wellington claimed between $1386 and $2000 for accommodation when in the capital.
This is not their claim for the four months in total, but the amounts they claim every month. And it is this area that I have some questions. Let us look at the Greens statement.
I’m not too interested in the level of airfares, or taxis as that is simply the cost of doing the job. There is no self gain from these expenses. And in fact it can often be the harder working the MP, the more their expenses will be. An MP who doesn’t attend any community events will have far less travel expenses than an MP who is doing 80 hour weeks covering the electorate.
What I am interested in is how much each MP claims for their Wellington accommodation expenses. And for the Greens they are:
- Jeanette Fitzsimons $2,000/mth = $24,000/year
- Catherine Delahunty $2,000/mth = $24,000/year
- Kevin Hague $1,950/mth = $23,400/year
- Sue Bradford $1,560/mth = $18,720/year
- Kennedy Graham $1,560/mth = $18,720/year
- Metiria Turei $1,467/mth = $17,604/year
- Keith Locke $1,386/mth = $16,636/year
Now the question for the Green Party, is who is that expense paid to? In the past the Greens have avoided the ban on paying yourself rent, by having their Superannuation Fund buy the houses they stay in, and have the taxpayer pay rent to their Super Fund.
If their Super Fund is receiving the rent from all seven MPs, that is $143,080/year or $429,240 over the parliamentary term of rent.
Could someone from the Green Party confirm how many of the seven MPs are havung the taxpayer pay rent to their superannuation fund, and which ones?
Note that Fitzsimons and Delahunty have maxed out their expenses to the maximum $24,000 a year.