MP Expenses in the UK and NZ
I’ve just recorded an interview about MP expenses with Jemma Dempsey from RadioLIVE’s World at Noon. When preparing for the interview I noted some comparisons between MP expenses in NZ and the UK.
It seems the UK Parliament already had better disclosure of MP expenses than the NZ Parliament, even before detailed claim receipts were leaked to a UK newspaper last week.
In the UK I can find a breakdown of my MP’s expense claims by category and see the total amount she received. In NZ I couldn’t find online the expense amounts claimed by my MP.
My UK MP, a government backbencher, is paid £63,291 ($161,800), and in 2007/08 received a staffing allowance of £83,106 ($212,456) and £49,284 ($125,992) for other expense allowances. Comparing this amount to other MPs, my MP’s total expenses placed her 506th out of 645 MPs.
My NZ MP, also a government backbencher, is, as far as I could determine, paid $131,000. I couldn’t find the expenses amount claimed by my MP on the www.parliament.nz site. There was some generic information about entitlements but it wasn’t obvious what the maximum amounts were.
Later in the year the UK parliament will require even more transparency from MPs. From July, UK MP’s must include in the Register of Member’s Interests:
- the precise amount of each individual payment for directorships and remunerated employment and
- the nature of the work carried out in return for that payment.
In NZ, the Register of Interests doesn’t require MPs to disclose money received for private sector employment.
