Did we hear that little tit bit of information from Nicola Willis during her budget speech? Yeah Right!
The Herald reported –
“The Prime Minister has asked for advice on former MPs’ entitlements following reports millions of dollars had been spent subsidising travel for retired politicians over the past decade.”
“In 2025 it cost around $1.5 million, while this year’s Budget set aside $1.6m for the scheme.”
While their constituents struggle with grocery bills, our politicians approved a $100,000 budget increase to keep their retired mates comfortable in their travels next year! Yep, our politicians are working hard…. on gifting their retired mates an extra $100,000!
But what you and I, and good old Joe Public have been gnashing our teeth over is reading about the marvellous perks politicians quietly sign off for themselves; always with absolute, unanimous silence from across the other side of the house!
Increased perks, all the while sanctimoniously, telling us they know only too well the pain we are experiencing!
Isn’t it weird how bipartisanship magically appears when their own wallets are on the line.
In just the last fortnight, we’ve been bombarded with a number of stories exposing the wonderful remuneration and abundant perks of our righteous Members of Parliament. Unsurprisingly, the spotlight has shone brightest on their heartbreaking housing allowances and gold-plated superannuation schemes.
Why pay for your own roof when the taxpayer will happily fund your property portfolio?
Now, in the real world, if you work away from home, it is perfectly fair and reasonable for your employer to pick up the tab for your basic costs. But leave it to a politician to take a reasonable “away from home” reimbursement and it becomes an instrument that bleeds the taxpayer dry!
Take New Zealand First MP Andy Foster, now here is a true champion of the voters! The former Wellington mayor managed to spark widespread eye-rolling by claiming a $36,400 a year taxpayer subsidy, get this, just to live in a Wellington home he has owned for 26 years!
How does he justify pocketing $750 a week from the public purse for a mortgage free property? He, with a perfectly straight face, explained that “the cost of owning a home in Wellington is not cheap.”
No sh-t Sherlock!
Is that not truly disheartening for everyday renters and first-home buyers watching from the sidelines, desperate to get on the property ladder!
Of all the sweeteners our MP’s receive, these are what I believe to be the most expensive perks, for us the taxpayer, that these hard working MP’s receive.
In Number One position I rate their Superannuation Scheme their best little earner. We, good old Joe Muggins taxpayer, match an MP’s retirement contributions up to 250%. That’s $2.50 for every $1 he or she puts in! But they’re not totally greedy; maxing out at 20% of their annual salary. This can contribute up to $62,000+ per year into an individual MP’s super account.
Meanwhile Joe Public, if aged under 65, is hearing calls/warnings that the entitlement age for New Zealand Super must be pushed out to at least 67!
While political parties are debating raising the eligibility age to 67, treasury models present a more pessimistic outlook. Their projections suggest that to maintain current spending ratios, the eligibility age may eventually need to rise to 72 or 73!
Yet politicians can continue to enjoy one of the, if not the most, generous of super schemes!
Coming in at second place is their Wellington Accommodation Allowance. Out of town MPs can claim massive housing subsidies to live in Wellington. Ministers receive up to $52,000 a year, while regular backbench MPs can claim up to $36,000 a year, which critics point out is frequently used to rent or pay mortgages on properties they already personally own.
Taxpayers are having to slash household budgets yet politicians feast on gold-plated perks, pocketing up to $52,000 dollars annually to rent mortgage free Wellington apartments back to themselves.
While the rest of us see our household spend increase weekly, highly paid ministers sit comfortably in their taxpayer subsidised housing harvesting cash from their own investments!
This legal cash grab exploits lax rules, made by the politicians themselves, as they turn public service into private real estate wealth.
Truly shameless!
Our MP’s domestic and to a lesser extent, international travel benefit sits in 3rd place on the privileges list.
Sitting MPs receive fully funded domestic flights, rail, ferry, and taxi services for parliamentary business. Because their parliamentary duties requires long-term separations, the (compliant?) Remuneration Authority allows domestic travel for spouses and partners to help introduce family-friendliness to the “demanding” career.
And here is a weird twist; while government ministers must itemise their spending, ordinary MPs have their domestic travel, taxis, and parking managed by the Parliamentary Service and is, very conveniently, exempt from the Official Information Act. This lack of expense detail makes it difficult for the public to verify if partner or individual travel was strictly for parliamentary business.
In the calendar period from January 2024 to September 2025, these “protected” MPs spent nearly $15 million on travel, transport, and accommodation according to the Taxpayers Union.
They also uncovered the Maori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi was the highest individual claimant at $273,681, followed by Labour MP Damien O’Connor at $211,592 and Green MP Huhana Lyndon taking the bronze with $246,979.
Who can forget former Speaker Jonathan Hunt and the immense public scorn when he racked up a legendary, taxpayer-funded $22,000 Crown limousine and taxi bill over just a three-month period in 1997!
Ranking fourth on my list, but arguably first in sheer audacity, is the “grand parented” former MP travel rebate. It is the ultimate taxpayer shakedown. This legacy racket hands lifetime domestic and international travel subsidies to retired, pre-1999, politicians and their spouses!
This perk is nothing but a gold-plated racket cooked up in the halls of power, voted for by the greedy, and funded by us, the gullible taxpayer!
These former MP’s are laughing all the way to the boarding gate!
Costing taxpayers $1.6 million annually, it covers up to 12 domestic flights and a business-class flight to London every year per person, running up individual bills as high as $210,000 over time.
Bryce Edwards Democracy Briefing recently posted – “The largest identified claimants are former National cabinet minister Philip Burdon and his wife Rosalind, who have claimed more than $200,000 since 2014.”
“Former Speaker Sir Lockwood Smith and his wife have claimed about $175,000; former Labour minister Chris Carter and his husband more than $165,000; former Act leader Richard Prebble and his partner at least $150,000. Sixteen couples have each claimed over $100,000 in a decade — together accounting for more than a third of everything the scheme pays out.”
The system proves its irrationality when Burdon’s family’s wealth was estimated at $95 million in 2019.!!!
What I’m attempting to examine and criticise with this article is the, ridiculously, alleged impartiality surrounding parliamentary remuneration and expose how Members of Parliament routinely exploit independent bodies like the Higher Salaries Commission and/or the Remuneration Authority.
While public anger may intensify over ever expanding perks and taxpayer funded privileges, politicians conveniently deflect any accusations of self-indulgence.
Looking at the lifetime domestic and international travel subsidies to retired, pre-1999, politicians and their spouses; the barriers to removing this “gold-plated” subsidy are political and ethical, not legal!
That privilege could easily be abolished by a simple Act of Parliament!
It just goes to show the roots of the “Old Parliamentarians Club” are firmly grounded in the taxpayers pocket!
Sir John Key argued against scrapping the perk, alleging it is fundamentally unfair to retrospectively strip away retirement benefits that politicians relied upon when their base salaries were much lower than they are today!
Tell me Sir John, why should taxpayers bankroll lifetime privilege for long retired politicians? This gilded perk abuses taxpayers, wastes millions and defies modern employment standards!
By outsourcing pay increase to an external panel, MPs employ a convenient facade of neutrality and hands-off detachment. This clever sheltering effectively stifles public backlash on one hand but validates continuous, institutionalised self-interest on the other!
Never breaking the law, MPs leverage system loopholes, legislative overrides, and “arms-length” boundary distinctions to maximize their personal financial benefit while maintaining a veneer of independent oversight.
The most direct way MPs exploit the system is by using their legislative power to override the Remuneration Authority whenever independent decisions do not favour them politically or financially.
In 2015, Parliament passed legislation changing how the Remuneration Authority was legally required to calculate their pay. They stripped the Authority’s broader discretion and mandated that MP increases be strictly linked to a fixed formula tied to public sector wage increases. This backfired by generating higher-than-expected automatic pay increases!
I argue that ultimately, this supposed independent oversight functions merely as a sophisticated political smokescreen, designed to legitimise parliamentary entitlement and hollow out genuine democratic accountability.
Ultimately, expecting Parliament to fix this shameless gravy train is the ultimate exercise in political futility. We can vent our outrage and demand transparency all we want, but the harsh reality is that the politicians holding the keys to the treasury have absolutely no incentive to lock the vault.
After all, why would they ever dismantle a system designed to look after their own golden years? As the old saying goes, turkeys don’t vote for an early Christmas!
Ironically, MMP strips Joe Public of their power to punish backroom, cross-party political deals at the ballot box. MMP dilutes voter accountability during these instances of cross party collusion.
But you can take action. Email your local MP or party leaders with this exact question –
“Will you commit to eliminating the grandfathered travel perk for former MPs?”
They might ignore your email, but they will find it harder to ignore the collective pressure!
FOOTNOTE: New Zealand First MP, Shane Jones, yes, he of renting porn movies on the government credit card, was, last week, reported to have spent $63,000 while attending a mining conference in Canada, yet the cabinet approved cost for the trip was $33,000. That is a 91% blowout of a travel budget in one trip!
Do you think Shane was embarrassed or repentant? Not Shane, he warned – “Provoke the matua at your peril”
What was even more galling was Winston Peters response when questioned by reporters he insisted Shane had done nothing wrong! Indignantly claiming – “There’s nothing out of the ordinary on this matter at all…”
Don’t those statements reveal just how deeply entrenched political entitlement really is!
Only those living off the public purse could be so tone-deaf!
Pee Kay writes he is from a generation where common sense, standards, integrity and honesty are fundamental attributes. This article was first published HERE
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