The form is here.
The important question is at the bottom of the first page. It is the key to establishing where a MP’s primary residence is.
This story has a way to run yet.
The form is here.
The important question is at the bottom of the first page. It is the key to establishing where a MP’s primary residence is.
This story has a way to run yet.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 9:56 am and is filed under national, parliament. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
“Is this residence the place you would normally go to when you are not on parliamentary business?”
Mr English is in A LOT of trouble if he put Dipton down there just so he could claim an allowance!
“Is this residence the place that you would normally go to when you are not on parliamentary business?”
Yep, that has to be the key question in establishing an MP’s primary residence.
If Bill English said “Yes” to that question referring to his Dipton house, then it is an outright lie. His family have lived in Wellington since he was a Treasury official in the late 1980s.
And, he keeps telling us how important his family is to him, so he must go home to them every night – in Wellington. Right?
But, if he did tell the truth and said “No”, then how could the Speaker agree to English being an “out of Wellington MP” giving him permission to raid the treasury to enrich his family trust.
Something certainly doesn’t smell right here.
The media should demand Bill English come out and show the public whether he ticked yes. That’s pretty damn serious if he did…. very serious.
Just checking, this is the form that MPs use to describe which is their primary residence, and that they are only entitled to an accommodation allowance if that primary residence is more than so many kilometres from Wellington?
Any chance you could also put up the “current Speaker’s Determination”?
Trevor, I see this is a Parliamentary Service form. Is the same one or one requesting the same details used by Ministerial Services for Ministers claiming Accomodation Expense reimbursement?
I appreciate you, having been Wellington-based when a Minister, may not know, but presumably some of your colleagues will.
Anita @ 10.36 yes – there is a Wellington zone 50k from parliament from memory.
@ 10.37 Will try and find.
Toad – we don’t think Ministers filled out a form. With such small numbers eligibility was a matter for the PM who in our case just followed the members rules re primary residence. I can’t remember it ever being an issue.
Anita :- Wellington accommodation expense reimbursement
(1) A member whose primary place of residence is outside the
Wellington commuting area may be reimbursed for the actual
and reasonable net expenses incurred by the member while engaged
on parliamentary business in respect of accommodation
within the Wellington commuting area if—
(a) the member is not provided with a residence at the public
cost? and
(b) the member uses, in the Wellington commuting area,
when the member is in the Wellington commuting
area for the purpose of carrying out parliamentary
business,—
(i) accommodation owned by that member? or
(ii) accommodation rented by that member on a continuous
basis for use in lieu of overnight accommodation?
or
(iii) accommodation in commercial premises? or
(iv) other private accommodation.
(2) No principal component of any mortgage payment or any
capital improvement to premises may be claimed under this
clause.
(3) The maximum amount that may be paid to any member under
this clause in any year is $24,000 (including goods and services
tax).
(4) The maximum amount that may be paid to any member under
subclause (1)(b)(iii) or (iv) in respect of any 1 night is—
(a) $160 (including goods and services tax) if the accommodation
is in commercial premises? or
(b) $50 (including goods and services tax) in the case of
other premises.
Trevor – Does the Speaker actually scrutinise what mps put down as a primary residence or are you guys just taken at your word?
Otherwise, how is it determined whether someone’s claim is legit or not?
If you’ve got time to disentangle my head about one more thing…
I have become completely confused by who is paying whom for English’ house. Is the new procedure that the house is a ministerial residence, so paid for directly by Ministerial Services (so the crown pays the trust and the money never touches Bill English’s bank account)? This is what The Herald seems to say. I ask mostly cos if that’s the case then English can’t “pay back” any money because he never got any money and he has no control or interest over the trust that did.
He caused money to be paid based on his word as to where he resided. He is responsible.
@ Smokie – staff look at the forms for the Speaker and would refer to him/her any problems apparent on the face of the forms.
Yes, I agree he’s responsible. My issue is that his language about paying it back is quite inconsistent with the claim that he has no control or interest in the trust, and it seems to me that a whole wing of his matchstick castle of lotsa-money-for-him is using that claim as a foundation.
Damn, that metaphor went bad
Anita, that metaphor was awesome. The way seemed so clever at first and then kind of collapsed under it’s own mass toward the end, perfectly mirroring the subject.
Kind of a “meta-metaphor” if you will.
*laughs*
I so wanted it to work too, I bet I have to give back half of my credibility now
Absolutely, Anita. The odd thing is that last year English apparently was a trustee with his wife and this year only she is a trustee. So, last year they both made decisions about the house and this year only she does. Why that makes a difference to the payout, I don’t know, but clearly he is still in on the decision making. Otherwise, shouldn’t the press release been put out by the trust?
Seems the Dipton Shuffle has been going on for some time.
In the words of English’s fellow National Party MP Jackie Blue, Mary English was a “Wellington general practitioner” as of 2001, so the English family were well established as Wellingtonians by then at the absolute latest.
I remember Walter Nash would keep his train tickets for his travel in to Parliament from the Hutt Valley ( his electorate)
Post went up before ten and none of the C/T team have got their lines yet. Must be serious.
We’re keeping Tim Ellis busy over at The Standard Trev. Don’t encourage him
@TM
“Post went up before ten and none of the C/T team have got their lines yet. Must be serious.”
Or no-one is really surprised that MPs are troughing at the taxpayers expense — balance deleted defamatory Trevor
[Deleted, personal abuse - admin]
Can we get an official information request for Bill’s primary residence form? Or is it not covered under the OIA?
PS not covered.
When will you learn Labour that personal, dirty, gutter politics is what got you kicked out.
Time you focused on the real issues that matter.
I would be careful to check your own cupboard is clean before you start claiming other parties cupboards are dirty.
Speaking of keeping in the law, Trev – you might want to get the left rear light on your car fixed. Noticed it the other day (night) when you were driving down Waiwhetu Road about 8.30pm.
Thanks GE
Trev – what GE ommitted was that he was joking about the left rear light. It is actually the right rear light that is broken – I saw it too! GE – don’t go getting Trev to fix the wrong light!
As long as its not indicating right while I’m turning left
According to the Companies Register:
Schedule 4 of the Companies Act makes it mandatory to provide in annual returns “The full names and residential addresses of the directors of the company” and section 377 makes it an offence to make a false statement in a company return.
So, one residential address for his company return, but a different one for his parliamentary expenses.
Interesting!
since you are all about transparency at the moment Toad, will you confirm that you are a paid staffer of the Green Party?
I thought Bill more or less pleaded guilty on yesterdays morning report. Will be interesting how the Speaker handles to backpayments and whether there needs to be a special revenue line in the next supplementary estimates or whether it can just be offset.
[...] Bill English has a major problem. He has told