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Bill English - Source: ONE News -
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The country's chief financial watchdog has been asked to investigate whether Finance Minister Bill English should be claiming a taxpayer funded housing allowance.
The veteran MP Jim Anderton wants the Auditor General to look into English's claim that Wellington is not his primary home and he can therefore claim an out-of-town allowance for staying in the capital.
Labour's Trevor Mallard says he believes English has lived in Wellington since 1995 or 1996.
"I think his primary place of residence is Wellington. I have always thought that and I don't think he's been eligible for an out-of-town allowance since that time," says Mallard.
Mallard says the Finance Minister shouldn't qualify because he's based in Wellington, his wife is a GP in the capital and his children go to school there.
But English says it's not for Mallard to decide.
"Trevor Mallard doesn't decide about the Parliamentary rules - the Speaker does," says English.
The Speaker has ruled that the minister's primary place of residence is the Southland town of Dipton where he's the local MP, so while in Wellington he claims a housing allowance.
ONE News political editor Guyon Espiner says English was claiming about $48,000 a year from the taxpayer but did later halve his claim.
From next year his housing allowance rises to $30,000 under the new rules for Ministerial housing.
English says he is not worried that his position as Finance Minister has been damaged by the issue.
"Not at all. The public want the minister of finance to do what I am doing which is getting on with trying to manage this economy out of a recession."