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Home / New Zealand

Westpac, Air NZ and SkyCity are the companies who bought the most gifts for MPs last year

Jason Walls
By Jason Walls
Political Editor – Newstalk ZB·NZ Herald·
9 May, 2019 06:55 AM3 mins to read

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Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters on stage at Mt Smart Stadium last February. Photo / Chris Loufte

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters on stage at Mt Smart Stadium last February. Photo / Chris Loufte

Tickets to the Foo Fighters, All Blacks games and to see former US President Barack Obama speak were the most common gifts MPs received from companies last year.

And Westpac, Air New Zealand and Sky City were spending the most on hosting MPs.

In total, according to the list of MPs' pecuniary interests, MPs declared 153 gifts last year.

According to the rules of Parliament, anything given to an MP which has an estimated value of more than $500 has to be declared.

And there are many different gifts that have been declared.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern received an Afghan rug from Sheikh Abdullah of the United Arab Emirates and a Sevres ceramic ornament from French President Emmanuel Macron.

But some gifts are a little less diplomatic.

For example, both Attorney general David Parker and Health Minister David Clark were given tickets to see singer Pink live in concert.

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It is unclear from the list, however, if the ministers sat together at the show.

When it comes to which company has purchased the most gifts for MPs, Westpac takes the cake with 10 different MPs listing at least one gift from the bank.

Of the 10, Westpac paid for – or at least in part paid for – seven MPs to go see Obama's speech in Auckland.

These included National leader Simon Bridges, deputy National leader Paula Bennett as well as Judith Collins and Paul Goldsmith.

Discover more

New Zealand|politics

The gifts Jacinda Ardern received last year

09 May 04:06 AM

Mastercard, Westpac and Air New Zealand all pitched in to get speaker Trevor Mallard a ticket to see the former US President as well.

Minister of Social Development Carmel Sepuloni was also at the event, courtesy of Westpac.

Air New Zealand has also been busy, with eight MPs listing gifts they received from the airline – five of these were tickets to see Obama.

Many MPs were rocking out to the Foo Fighters thanks to tickets paid for by SkyCity.

National's Chris Bishop, Simon Bridges, Tim Macindoe, Erica Stanford and Hamish Walker all went to see the gig.

SkyCity also paid for Collins to go and see Ed Sheeran.

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And when it comes to MPs who have accepted the most gifts, Collins is close to leading the pack, declaring 10 gifts valued at more than $500 last year.

These include five separate tennis matches, an All Blacks and a Warriors game and a ticket to NZ Fashion week.

In fact, the only MP who declared more gifts than Collins was Ardern.

Most of the gifts she declared were from foreign dignitaries, with the exception of tickets to see the All Blacks play France, courtesy of NZ Rugby.

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