By VERNON SMALL
Coalition Ministers Phillida Bunkle and Marian Hobbs have been cleared of any wrong-doing for claiming an "out of town" accommodation allowance while enrolled as Wellington voters.
The two ministers will keep their jobs and will not have to repay the money.
But Prime Minister Helen Clark is still unhappy about the rules covering the allowances and is calling for greater clarity over when they should be made.
A Parliamentary Service report released yesterday said the crucial factor was the Higher Salaries Commission's view that being enrolled as a voter in Wellington, as both politicians were, did not affect their entitlement to the accommodation allowance, which is paid when a politician's primary residence is outside the Wellington commuting area.
Commission chairman Hutton Peacock said there was no direct link between the Electoral Act and the commission's determinations of MPs' entitlements.
The commission gives Parliamentary Service approval to pay the allowance when an MP's primary residence is outside the Wellington commuting area and the MP uses an owned or rented house in Wellington when he or she is on parliamentary business.
"In these circumstances both members were within their rights to claim and be paid the Wellington accommodation allowance," Mr Peacock said.
While the commission found no impropriety, it would consider whether in the future MPs would be able to enrol as Wellington voters and also claim the allowance.
Helen Clark and Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton said they accepted the report's findings.
They backed the commission's plan to look again at the definitions it applied, and said they would welcome an Audit Office investigation of the general issue of allowances to ensure there were clear guidelines.
The official scrutiny was triggered late last year when it emerged that Ms Bunkle was living in a ministerial flat in upmarket Oriental Bay while owning houses in Wellington and Waikanae.
It was later revealed that both Ms Bunkle and Ms Hobbs received the out-of-town allowances while they were registered as Wellington voters and were seeking election in the Wellington Central seat won by Ms Hobbs in 1999.
Parliamentary Service checked whether the payments, set at up to $13,750 a year, were correctly paid out and whether they should be refunded.
Ms Bunkle, who faced calls for her resignation, has moved out of the ministerial apartment.
She owns a cottage in central Wellington and campaigned for Wellington Central as a person who had "lived and worked in Wellington for 25 years."
But she has also claimed she was entitled to the ministerial home and, previously, the accommodation allowance, because she actually lived in Waikanae and Nelson.
Ms Hobbs continued to receive the allowance after registering to vote in Wellington Central.
She admitted she had been living mostly in Wellington by 1999.
An Alliance spokesman said Ms Bunkle had not sought, nor did she intend to seek, a Wellington accommodation allowance since moving out of her Oriental Bay flat.
Opposition politicians slammed the reports, and National MP Roger Sowry said the two should repay the money.
"Two ministers who were going to meetings in Wellington Central and had enrolled themselves in Wellington Central pledging their support for the electorate, saying they loved [it] and lived in it, were then going home at night and claiming out of town allowances. It is just outrageous."
He said you did not need rules to know that was wrong.
He was also annoyed that the reports were prepared by the two organisations who made the payments. Act leader Richard Prebble also questioned the process, and said the matter should be investigated by Crown Law.
Ms Bunkle said she felt vindicated by the report, while Ms Hobbs said she felt her actions had been justified.
Report clears Bunkle and Hobbs
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