Give it back!

While it’s long been suspected that our politicians have only their own best interests at heart, this new spirit of ‘openness and transparency’ over Parliamentary expenses has been a shock to us all.

For the first time NZ taxpayers can see some of the costs associated with the traditional ‘rorting the system’ that has gone on since time immemorial in Parliament. No wonder Deputy Prime Minister Bill ‘We must all tighten our belts’ English has moved to repay just over half of the $24,000 that taxpayers have paid him to live in his own Wellington home for the last six months! While this action was taken after days of English asserting that his expense claims were completely legal, in the middle of a global economic downturn there were much more important things that a Finance Minister should be worried about, with redundancies and cost cutting across all sectors of the economy (including Government departments, but apparently excluding the Government itself) this was a really bad look. However other MPs from all political patries are ‘hanging tough’. They continue to live in taxpayer-funded Ministerial residences or claiming accommodation expenses while renting out their Wellington properties, sometimes to other MPs (who, of course, get an accommodation subsidy)! It all looks like an incredibly cosy, taxpayer-funded money-go-round

ACT MP Sir Roger Douglas is the toughest nut to crack. Originally touted as one of Parliament’s ‘Perk Busters’, ‘Roger the Dodger’ has attempted to justify the use of taxpayer subsidies for travel expenses associated with a trip he took, together with his wife, to England to see his grandchildren. He justifies the expense claim by pointing out that as a result of his time spent serving the public as a politician he is legally entitled to ‘Roger’ the public to the tune of a 90% subsidy of international travel expenses. While it may be legal, in the present economic climate it is certainly not moral. When even backbench MPs earn at least three times the average annual wage, plus expenses and a gold-plated, taxpayer-subsidised superannuation scheme, there is certainly no need for politicians to expect the taxpayer to stump up for their holidays as well. At the present time many taxpayers can only dream about overseas holidays, a fact which has definitely depressed the local travel industry!

Which brings us to the Philip Field affair. Once a promising young MP from the Pacific Islands, Field has just been found guilty of accepting bribes and of corruption. He got a Taiwanese tiler, along with other Asian tradespeople, to work on his properties in Auckland and Samoa on the understanding that he would use his influence to get them New Zealand residency. He could get up to six year’s imprisonment, however under the current regime his wife is still entitled to all his perks as an Ex-MP.

It’s time all Politicians, of all political persuasion, got their snouts out of the public trough and smelt the coffee! Which is why I think the Tom Scott cartoon shows the hypocrisy associated with politics so well! (Is it any wonder we loathe them?)