Some MPs were willing to discuss their use of rebates when the Heraldasked what kind of parliamentary purposes were considered appropriate for discounted international travel:
Trevor Mallard, Labour
Where: San Francisco for the America's Cup.
When: September.
Cost to taxpayer: 90 per cent of the cost of a return business-class airfare to San Francisco. No accommodation was paid for by the taxpayer. Any accommodation provided by third parties would be disclosed in the Register of Pecuniary Interests.
Where: San Francisco for the America's Cup.
When: September.
Cost to taxpayer: 90 per cent of the cost of a return business-class airfare to San Francisco. No accommodation was paid for by the taxpayer. Any accommodation provided by third parties would be disclosed in the Register of Pecuniary Interests.
Mallard was Sports Minister in the former Labour Government which had provided funding for Team NZ and was Labour's sport spokesman at the time of the trip. He also remains Labour's America's Cup spokesman. "I indicated [in application to the Speaker] I would go to San Francisco to support the team, I would be involved in events to which New Zealand companies brought people with whom they were making contacts, and would follow up on contacts from there, as well as previous contacts I had."
Phil Goff, Labour
Where: Canberra, Australia. Goff travelled as Labour's foreign affairs and trade spokesman, to meet ministers in Australia's Government and "lobby them on behalf of New Zealanders who are permanently resident in Australia".
When: February this year.
Where: Canberra, Australia. Goff travelled as Labour's foreign affairs and trade spokesman, to meet ministers in Australia's Government and "lobby them on behalf of New Zealanders who are permanently resident in Australia".
When: February this year.
Cost: 90 per cent of return economy-class ticket. Paid for accommodation himself. Meetings included then Foreign Minister Bob Carr, Trade Minister Craig Emerson, and the Minister of Immigration's office. "I stayed in a training hostel at $60 a night with a communal shower block. There was no junket at all about it, it was all straight work."
Metiria Turei, Green Party
Where: Australia for five days "to meet with child protection agencies about their child protection law".
When: August
Cost: Qualifies for a 75 per cent rebate. Asked if she tacked on a few days for personal reasons, she said she had spent some time with Australia's Green Party "but no holiday". Accommodation was paid for out of the Green Party's leaders' budget - a sum provided by Parliamentary Services for parties to run their parliamentary operations.
Where: Australia for five days "to meet with child protection agencies about their child protection law".
When: August
Cost: Qualifies for a 75 per cent rebate. Asked if she tacked on a few days for personal reasons, she said she had spent some time with Australia's Green Party "but no holiday". Accommodation was paid for out of the Green Party's leaders' budget - a sum provided by Parliamentary Services for parties to run their parliamentary operations.
David Parker, Labour
Where: Britain and United States. Visited the OECD and head of the International Monetary Fund in connection with Labour's monetary policy development. Meetings included former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz, Harvard's Jeffrey Frankel and IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard.
When: September 2012
Cost: Qualifies for a 75 per cent rebate. "That's the only time I've used it. There were lots of meetings [former National minister] Simon Upton put together for me, various monetarists and trade economists."
Where: Britain and United States. Visited the OECD and head of the International Monetary Fund in connection with Labour's monetary policy development. Meetings included former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz, Harvard's Jeffrey Frankel and IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard.
When: September 2012
Cost: Qualifies for a 75 per cent rebate. "That's the only time I've used it. There were lots of meetings [former National minister] Simon Upton put together for me, various monetarists and trade economists."
Tau Henare, National
Where: Rebate was approved for a trip to Israel for Inter-Parliamentary Union purposes.
When: Last November, but the trip fell through.
Cost: If the trip had gone ahead, Henare would have qualified for a 90 per cent rebate. He gets two trips a year publicly funded to attend IPU assemblies as part of separate official travel programmes, but this was the third he wanted to attend because previous efforts to travel to Israel had also fallen through. Henare is on the Middle East committee of the IPU so applied for the rebate. "I think it's good we're able to use it for work."
Where: Rebate was approved for a trip to Israel for Inter-Parliamentary Union purposes.
When: Last November, but the trip fell through.
Cost: If the trip had gone ahead, Henare would have qualified for a 90 per cent rebate. He gets two trips a year publicly funded to attend IPU assemblies as part of separate official travel programmes, but this was the third he wanted to attend because previous efforts to travel to Israel had also fallen through. Henare is on the Middle East committee of the IPU so applied for the rebate. "I think it's good we're able to use it for work."
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