9:00 AM
The two Government ministers at the centre of the Wellington housing allowances scandal have stood down until official inquiries are completed.
The Governor-General officially removed the two MPs from their portfolios at 8.30 this morning.
Marian Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle will step aside until inquiries are finished into their accommodation allowances and electoral enrolments.
The pair are understood to have decided on the move after a Crown Law Office opinion delivered this week.
The opinion, on the status of their enrolments in Wellington Central, was sought from the Registrar of Electors.
The advice is still confidential and not definitive but it is the first official advice that raises further questions rather than clearing them.
Ms Hobbs and Ms Bunkle have been asked to supply more information to the registrar before a final opinion is given.
The Auditor-General is investigating the payment of accommodation allowances to the two MPs.
The allowances are paid to MPs who live outside Wellington to cover their housing costs in the capital while they are on parliamentary business.
The Parliamentary Service, which pays the allowances, and the Higher Salaries Commission, which sets the rules of payment, have both declared payments made to the two MPs to have been within the rules.
Before the last election, both had homes outside Wellington, Ms Bunkle in Waikanae and Ms Hobbs in Christchurch.
They declared them to be their primary residences and received the allowance for costs of their respective Wellington properties - up to $15,000 a year.
But they continued to receive the allowances even after they enrolled in Wellington Central, where they both campaigned.
In effect, they were Wellingtonians for political purposes and out-of-towners for allowance purposes.
They continued to receive the allowances until the election in November 1999.
Phillida Bunkle is an Alliance list MP and Minister of Consumer Affairs outside the cabinet.
She campaigned in Wellington Central last election but withdrew tactically to help Labour oust Act from the seat.
Marian Hobbs is Labour MP for Wellington Central. She is Minister of Broadcasting and the Environment and is in the cabinet.
She was a Christchurch-based list MP in 1996, but won the Wellington Central seat from Act leader Richard Prebble in 1999.
Marian Hobbs enrolled on August 28, 1999, giving her Wellington Te Aro address but noting that she had another residence in Christchurch.
Phillida Bunkle enrolled in Wellington Central on January 18, 1999, giving her residential address as a cottage in Thorndon.
Phillida Bunkle has experienced more political pressure since the allowances scandal broke in the week before Christmas.
Questions then about new hemp curtains for her ministerial flat in Oriental Bay led to questions about her entitlements.
Helen Clark questioned her entitlement to a ministerial residence, believing her to be a Wellington-based MP and Ms Bunkle volunteered to move out.
She claimed her primary residence was in Waikanae but it emerged when Parliament resumed last week that four of her family had also enrolled in Wellington Central, giving as their address the cottage which Ms Bunkle claimed had only one bedroom.
The Auditor-General's inquiry was yesterday widened from its original scope.
He will now produce two reports. The first, due in about three weeks, will examine the specific cases of Ms Bunkle and Ms Hobbs.
It will also look at the policies and procedures for paying the accommodation allowance and the ministers' travel allowance.
The second report, due in four to five weeks, will look at the broader entitlement to the MPs' accommodation allowance and the criteria for receiving it.
Bunkle, Hobbs resign portfolios
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