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Prime Minister John Key prepares to leave Tauranga Airport - Source: ONE News
MPs' travel bills leapt by $1 million during the election period despite rules that bar them from using their taxpayer-funded travel perk for electioneering.
Our politicians racked up more than $3.1m on domestic travel and accommodation in the last three months of last year. In the previous quarter they spent $1.94m, figures from Parliamentary Service show.
During the last three months of 2010, the figure was
$1.7m.
The Prime Ministers' limousine bill racked up $100,000, and he
spent $21,865 on domestic air travel costs for the last three
months of 2011. The expense was up from $86,501 in 2011.
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira on $54,961 and then Labour leader Phil Goff with $32,566 topped the list.
The Speaker's Directions, issued in November, states the funding is for "parliamentary" purposes only and strictly prohibits electioneering.
As Parliament rose for the election on October 6, and new MPs returned for only two days in December, the House was only in session for eight days during this quarter.
MPs also use the expenses to undertaking research or administration and attend relating to Parliament business or their electorate.
Goff said it was difficult to differentiate between meeting parliamentary responsibilities and electioneering.
"Yes, you are working seven days a week, you are getting around the country, you are talking to people. But it is fundamentally what you are doing right throughout the three-year term but with a greater intensity over the election period.
"You can interpret anything as following your parliamentary responsibilities and anything as electioneering. It's pretty hard to differentiate between the two.
"If you require me to appear on a television programme in Auckland then I'm up there. Is that anything to do with the election? Of course it is but it is also part of my parliamentary duties.
"Right throughout the three-year term everything you are doing is a combination of parliamentary duties but it is also very political in nature, that is the way the job works."
Speaker Lockwood Smith could not be reached for comment last night.
The total spent in the final quarter, by both departing and new MPs, was $3,153,680.
The National Party spent $503,636, Labour $683,916, the Greens $177,529, the Maori Party $54,345 and ACT $62,750.
Retired Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton spent $14,911. NZ First, which returned to Parliament after a three year absence, racked up $18,735.
Of the bill, $537,788 was for accommodation in Wellington and $83,310 for outside the capital. The domestic air travel bill was $1,641,658 and $890,923 was spent on surface travel.
All individual MPs' expenses funded from the Parliamentary Service were first revealed in July 2009, after a scandal in the UK. Outgoings usually reflect the size of the electorate they represent and how far it is from Wellington.
MPs Rahui Katene spent $29,436, Kevin Hague $28,763 and David Cunliffe $28,040.
