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Figures released for the first time reveal the taxpayer has forked out almost $8million in the first six months of 2009, covering the travel and accommodation expenses of MPs and Ministers.
The first disclosure of expenses shows that Labour leader Phil Goff ran up the most expenses as an MP, while Foreign Minister Murray McCully's travel gave him the biggest bill of any minister.
Speaker Lockwood Smith and Prime Minister John Key have released the expense bills from both Parliamentary Service and Ministerial Services for the first six months of the year. Click here to see the full rundown of MPs' expenses .
It is the first time that all individual MPs' expenses funded from the Parliamentary Service have been revealed.
Goff's travels around New Zealand made him the biggest claimant outside of Cabinet, running up $124,480 in bills.
This was made up of $79,027 in surface travel, $35,035 in airfares, $10,294 in Wellington accommodation and $124 in out-of-Wellington accommodation.
His spending was dwarfed by the overseas travel of McCully with $263,284 in international travel expenses from ministerial services.
McCully also racked up $84,326 in internal ministerial expenses for accommodation and travel, as well as $6000 from Parliamentary Service in Wellington accommodation.
Key and Smith said in a statement that the release of information on expenses would be held every three months following a decision to provide more transparency.
MPs averaged about $40,000 in expenses with those servicing large, rural electorates far from Wellington racking up the biggest travel costs.
Goff's expenses were high because the amount included a $79,000 bill for a ministerial car which he uses as Leader of the Opposition.
The highest spending MP was Chris Carter, from the Auckland electorate of Te Atatu, with an expense bill of $82,410
He spent $57,137 on air travel, far in excess of any other MP, $14,476 on surface travel and $10,667 on Wellington accommodation.
Senior Labour MP Trevor Mallard said Carter's expenses were inflated because they included his travel representing the Opposition in the China, Britain, the United States and Canada.
Labour's chief whip Steve Chadwick said the party would not be commenting on any individual MP's expenses.
The next biggest spender was Maori MP Hone Harawira with $79,000. He services a large Maori electorate covering the top of the North Island and said the bill just showed how hard he worked.
Smith came in third with $69,692.
He serves a rural electorate north of Auckland and spent $37,880 on air travel, $17,295 on surface travel and $12,000 on Wellington accommodation.
Smith says he did all he could to keep expenses down including driving himself from on the two hour trip between his home and airport to save the cost of the ministerial car he is entitled to.
ACT MP Roger Douglas was the largest spending list MP with $62,663 in expenses including $44,411 in air travel and $11,083 in surface travel.
The most frugal MP who served the entire six months was National's Katrina Shanks with $10,242, followed by Green MP Sue Kedgley on $13,881 and Labour's Winnie Laban on $15070.
All are Wellington based MPs.
On the ministerial side, Trade Negotiations Minister Tim Groser spent $189,156 on international travel and $74,795 on internal expenses.
Key has $212,658 in internal expenses and $82,735 on international travel.
Smith told journalists that MPs' expenses generally reflected the electorate they represented, how large it was and how far from Wellington.
He would not comment on individual MPs spending, but felt the overall levels were reasonable and it showed the system was working.
Smith said there were some areas that he wanted to look at more closely, but he would not name what they were.
The release of the expenses follows a scandal in England where leaked information showed that many MPs were rorting their expense system with extravagant and unreasonable expense claims.
Smith said he was confident that the New Zealand system was more robust and transparent.
Do you believe these expenses are justified? Share your opinion on our message board below:
Add a Comment:
Post new commentcueboy said on 2010-10-30 @ 13:35 NZDT: Report abusive post
I am surprised this message board is not inundated with messages castigating The Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith, over his ruling on MPs expenditure. They have got to be accountable, its not thier money, it belongs to the Tax Payers of New Zealand. Secrecy is a path would should not go down.I hope all New Zealanders follow this one up, and not let it die the death, to let the sticky fingers loose on the purse strings of this Nation will become a finacial problem in months and years to come.
cueboy said on 2010-10-30 @ 10:54 NZDT: Report abusive post
Great to see the Pime minister agrees with Transparency over travel by MPS. Its a pity the speaker of the house dosent share his view.Then again to anyone who has time to watch Parliament during the day, gee what a fiasco.All the questions are loaded to enhance the initial question asked.Talk about lack of honesty.Talk about free money, some sit there all day looking to the gallery, mostly the older ones.Transparency is wanted.
kiwi666 said on 2010-10-30 @ 10:31 NZDT: Report abusive post
Come on NZ you sould know its one rule for them and another rule for us mp look after them selfs
Noddy samurai said on 2010-10-30 @ 07:26 NZDT: Report abusive post
Every mature adult has the responsibility to be held accountable for his/her actions it's part of growing up; Please MP Ministers grow up have responsibility and common sense ... Only a child has to hide some thing
ThousandDemons said on 2010-10-30 @ 04:09 NZDT: Report abusive post
HELLZ NO they shouldn't be able to keep how much they're spending away from the public eye if we have to foot the bill. ESPECIALLY if it's for their own personal joys, rather than for any work-related spending. EITHER way, we should know, because we're PAYING FOR IT!!! KICK THEM OUT!