The new National government aren’t exactly walking the walk when it comes to belt tightening. In the first three months of this year, National Ministers spent $739,000 on travel, more than double the $336,000 Labour ministers spent in the same period in 2008. This follows news that they have also doubled the number of ministerial staffers earning over $100,000 a year and approved hiring of consultants on rates of up to $2000 a day. Not exactly leading by example are they?
While I’m on the topic of Beehive staff and consultants, Colin James has written a very thoughtful piece on the political neutrality of public servants. He makes a lot of good points, including that the time for clarifying whether ministerial advisors are public servants or not has well and truly come. As a former ministerial advisor myself, I never regarded myself as a public servant, my accountability was directly to the minister I worked for. It’s a grey area that definitely needs clarifying.
James also has concerns about the arrangements for the hiring of purchase advisors and the recent decision to place a minister-appointed ‘minder’ within the Department of Labour to look after the Immigration Service. The way both of these decisions have been made, in my view, contradicts the spirit, if not the letter, of the State Sector Act and the Public Finance Act. I’m disappointed the State Services Commissioner hasn’t seen fit to object.
[Correction: Treasury have apologised for getting the figures wrong on travel, so the first part of this post is incorrect. The stuff about Beehive staff and consultants is still accurate, so the general message is still valid. CH]
Well – there has been a bit in the press on National walking the walk on belt tightening of late:
Ensuring that spouses pay for own travel and Key (and one assumes other ministers) moving from First Class (as was the Standard practice under Labour) to Business class.
Can Labour give an undertaking that they will keep to this practice if they get back to power, or would do they believe that first class is more appropiate?
** excuse the typos in previous post (and I guess others) – I will take more time to proof read before clicking submit moving forward.
Chris – how come when a fairly easy question gets asked on this blog there often isnt a answer?
Could you tell me: Can Labour give an undertaking that they will keep to this practice of Business class fares and spouses paying for their own travel if Labour gets back to power, or would do you believe that spending tax payers funds on first class is more appropiate?
Sorry, I’ve been away from my computer and haven’t figured out how to comment via blackberry. Business class travel for long haul flights was standard practice under the last Labour govt. I think only the PM flew 1st class now and then. Also remember Air NZ no longer has a 1st class so a bit of a moot point a lot of the time anyway.
As for the spouses, and I should stress at this point that this is my personal view, I don’t have a problem with Ministers taking their spouses with them when they travel overseas. Families pay a high price for the career choice of their MP husband/wife/mum/dad. In some cases, if the spouse doesn’t travel they’ll barely ever see their partner!
Looks like you scored a pretty massive own goal anyway, Richie: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2560168/Treasury-bungles-travel-bill
So, should the headline of this post be changed to “Labour’s 9 Years of Travel Blowouts”? Or how about “Hopkins Petty Attack Backfires”? Oooh here is a good one: “Newbie MP Has A Blowout”.
Utterly disgusting that Helen decided she was too important to ride in Business Class “now and then” isn’t it? At least I’m glad she is no longer flying courtesy of my pocket.
Tick tock Hipkins – hiding from your balls up doesn’t make it go away. Issued that apology yet? You can either send it to the national party, or to your own side for your own goal.
HELLO HIPKINS – wanna come and clarify how this whole matter isn’t just a great big bag of balls ups and hypocrisy?
I mean, you’ve had time for a new posting, but no time to respond here. For shame. Maybe I should start spamming your other postings.
For the purposes of clarity:
1. Was Helen’s “now and then” usage of First Class travel OK?
2. Have you apologised yet for your inaccurate (if not inane) attack on travel budgets?
3. What the hell were Labour doing spending that much on travel at the end of their term? The new government had to do introductions and spent less!
Wow, you’re already turning into an inaccurate, cowardly hypocrite Hipkins. What a way to start a parliamentary career – your labour mates will be proud of you.
I’ve put a correction note at the bottom of the post. It was Treasury’s mistake not mine, although given their recent history I probably should have known better than to rely on advice provided by them. And no, I don’t have a problem with Helen Clark flying First Class, nor do I have a problem with Key doing it. Never claimed that I did. But do keep trying to divert the debate into the gutter by all means.