MPs should never accept cash for service, asserts PM

Members of Parliament should never accept money for work done, regardless of Maori or Pacific Island customs, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.

The practice has come under the spotlight after Maori MPs Hone Harawira and Pita Sharples said at the weekend they had taken cash from people in line with the Maori custom of koha, or donations.

Both MPs said they passed the money back to community ventures or gave it in other koha, but Dr Sharples told NZPA what he did with the money was "no-one else's business".

The issue arose in discussions around embattled Labour MP Taito Phillip Field's alleged acceptance of the Samoan equivalent, lafo, from constituents asking for help at his Mangere electorate office.

Dr Sharples said Pakeha needed to understand koha was part of a process of mutual bonding and obligation that was deeply ingrained in Maori culture.

He described Pakeha opposition to such practices as a "clash of cultures".

But the Prime Minister said today she believed MPs should never accept payment for services rendered, regardless of culture.

"There can only be one culture around this in New Zealand and that is that Members of Parliament work freely for their constituents, they do not accept money for doing that work," she said on TVNZ's Breakfast show.

She had never accepted money for services and would have thought it was a "commonsense" rule all MPs would have followed.

"You cannot have an expectation arise that people go in put money on the table in return for being helped, that might be a practice in some other countries but it must never be a practice here."

Former auditor-general Robert Buchanan yesterday said there were no specific rules regarding the issue for MPs other than a law against bribes and that needed to change.

Asked if there needed to be a formal code, Helen Clark said: "It may be we are moving to a world where that may have to happen".

"You have to draw that very strong line between donations for services and then people who then at some point completely unrelated to the MP doing something for them giving money to the political party which is handed on.

"I think the problem is that a perception is growing that some Members of Parliament may accept money being put on the table in return for an MP making a representation or advocating for them and that is just 'no, no, no, no'."

On Newstalk ZB Miss Clark said it appeared Mr Harawira had accepted "cash for services".

The PM said she was also against "cash for policy" -- something she believed National was guilty of in the last election campaign.

Mr Harawira said he accepted koha, sometimes in cash, and passed it on to local schools or used it to cater for public functions.

He said the treatment of Mr Field was "brown bashing" and there was nothing wrong with accepting donations in line with your culture.

Within Maori culture koha was difficult to refuse, he said.

Dr Sharples said he too accepted cash koha, but gave back far more than he received.

Much of the koha he received was unrelated to his work as an MP, but on occasion he had received koha in his office.

Koha was usually given on visits to marae or at formal Maori functions. It was also given if you wanted to encourage something someone was doing.

But the party's other co-leader, Tariana Turia, told NZPA that after discussions it was her understanding that all koha given to the party's MPs went to the party.

That was the practice she followed.

She said there would need to be further discussion of the issue within the party's ranks.

Maori Labour MP Shane Jones said he believed all koha given to MPs should either go straight to their party or their marae.

That would erase any suspicions an MP was benefiting from koha.

MPs should never accept koha as a "tribute" for the work they were doing.

Koha was mainly given in the context of communal events and was a way of funding them, he said.

- NZPA