Love is in the air when ministers fly off

Rodney Hide. Photo / Richard Robinson

New love could be to blame for ministers' use of a travel perk that gives them unlimited free travel for spouses and partners and heavily discounted holiday flights.

The top-three spenders on the travel perks for the year so far are divorcees who have recently remarried or found new partners.

Over all ministers, the average spend on the perk was about $10,600 for the first nine months of the year. However, some spent nearly three times that amount.

Act leader Rodney Hide topped the list until he repaid $22,000 of his $34,000 partners-travel tab for taking his girlfriend, Louise Crome, with him to Hawaii and on a ministerial trip to Europe.

Northland MP John Carter's bill for spousal travel for the nine months of the year so far was the next highest - he topped $31,000 - and ACC Minister Nick Smith's was third highest, $26,000.

The figures are on top of their own domestic travel and ministerial official travel and could be a mixture of spouses, children and private international holidays.

Mr Carter married wife Leoni in January last year and Dr Smith married Linley Newport in April this year.

Mr Hide's relationship with Ms Crome is about two years old.

A spokesman for Mr Carter said he had not been overseas either officially or personally this year, and put the high cost down to the lengthy commute between Wellington and Northland.

Dr Smith honeymooned in Asia, but a spokesman said he had paid for it himself rather than use his 90 per cent travel subsidy. He said Dr Smith's wife went with him on an official overseas trip in March but her costs were included in the cost of the delegation.

She had accompanied him on his domestic travels for 2020 Emissions Target consultations. They also had four children between them who flew from Nelson to Wellington and back once a term.

Ministers with more long-standing marriages were also in the top five.

Education Minister Anne Tolley's total of $17,000 included an overseas holiday with her husband at a cost of $4120, for which she used her travel perk. A spokesman said Mrs Tolley's husband had not accompanied her on any official trips.

Finance Minister Bill English was also in the top five - although a significant portion of his $16,000 bill was the cost of shuttling up to six children to Southland and back. MPs' children can get up to four return trips from the home electorates to Wellington each year. A spokesman said Mr English had not taken his wife with him on international trips or used his international holiday discount.