A bit misleading

Stuff reports:

NZ First MP Tracey Martin was paid more than $70,000 as a local council board member – on top of her almost $150,000-a-year MP’s salary.

That’s a rather misleading sentence. The $70,000 is her board salary over two years. The way this is written makes it look like Martin is getting $70,000 a year on top of $150,000.

Down the bottom they say:

A council spokesman confirmed Martin was paid between 2011 and 2013. The annual salary was between $34,000 and $35,000.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think Martin should have retired from the board once she became an MP, but she retired in 2013 from it, so this is all historic anyway.

My point is just that the way the story was written (and this may be due to sub-editing) is rather misleading. A better sentence would have been:

NZ First MP Tracey Martin was paid more an extra $35,000 a year as a local council board member from 2011 to 2013 – on top of her almost $150,000-a-year MP’s salary.