MPs expenses

The latest quarter of expenses are up. MPs are here and Ministers here.

Amongst MPs, some ones that look interesting:

• Several mainly Labour MPs have Wellington accommodation expenses of more than $6,000. This is unusual as the annual limit is $24,000 so normally only expect $6,000 a quarter. Maybe there were some old costs unprocessed?
• The two highest out of Wellington accommodation spends are Parekura Horomia at $2,514 and Shane Jones at $2,254. This is for hotels etc when not in Wellington.
• The highest overall spender was Phil Goff (which is expected with his role) at $89,454 – however that is almost $7,000 a week which is quite high for domestic travel. $70,000 of it is domestic surface travel – I presume VIP Transport. His domestic travel bill is even higher than the PM’s which is unsual.
• . Next three were Hone Harawira, Lockwood Smith and Shane Jones – all from Northland, so no surprise again.

For Ministers:

• John Key has has the highest domestic costs at $66,248 followed by Gerogina te Heuheu on $63,179 and Bill English at $60,448.
• For international travel the big three are no surprise – Murray McCully at $231,000, Tim Groser at $221,000 and John Key on $164,000

On a macro level, total Ministerial expenses for the quarter was $2.18 million.The previous quarter it was $2.01 million.

For MPs total expenses were $1.89 million. The previous quarter it was $2.09 million.

So overall expenses were $4.10 million last quarter and $4.07 million this quarter.

As a final note could I repeat my request to the Parliamentary Service to provide the same level of service as Ministerial Services do, and make the expenses available in spreadsheet format also. This enhances transparency as it allows for much easier analysis. If Ministerial Services can do it, no reason the Parliamentary Service can not. Especially as the spreadsheet already exists – it is just a matter of adding it to the website.