One more bed helps put Bunkle's job on the line

By JOHN ARMSTRONG and VERNON SMALL

Alliance minister Phillida Bunkle's job hangs by a thread as Coalition leaders ponder whether to sack her to stem mounting political damage from the row over her ministerial flat and MP allowances.

Senior Government sources yesterday spoke of increasing frustration in the Beehive at the way the Customs Minister's story keeps taking further twists.

They said the deluge of bad publicity was throwing her credibility into question and proving an unwelcome and lingering distraction for the Coalition.

Their concern follows yesterday's disclosure that Ms Bunkle's cottage in the inner-city Wellington suburb of Thorndon - which she earlier said had only one bed - has an upstairs living area with an extra bed.

There was also annoyance within the Government yesterday that Ms Bunkle is now saying she was not officially told of the Prime Minister's post-election edict that ministers with private Wellington homes should not accept taxpayer-provided ministerial houses or flats.

Ms Bunkle gave up her two-bedroom ministerial flat in Oriental Bay in December after it was revealed she owned the cottage.

She said then that she had accepted the apartment because the cottage was too small, had only one bed and was unsuitable for her sick daughter.

She has also been under fire for previously claiming out-of-Wellington allowances as an ordinary MP because she deemed that her "primary residence" for parliamentary purposes was up the coast at Waikanae - even though she was telling voters she lived in the Wellington Central electorate.

Ms Bunkle's latest disclosures are contained in a 10-page letter from her to the Auditor-General, David Macdonald, who is investigating the payment of out-of-Wellington allowances to MPs.

The Registrar of Electors is conducting a separate inquiry into whether the MP should have enrolled in Wellington Central when she told parliamentary officials she was living at Waikanae.

The defiant MP is refusing to resign in advance of the inquiries' findings.

"The only circumstances in which I would make any decision is on the basis of the appropriate authority.

"That appropriate authority is primarily the Auditor-General.

"I don't believe I should give in to trial by media," said Ms Bunkle. "The facts should determine this and the facts should be considered by the appropriate authorities."

She said her leader, Jim Anderton, was "completely rational" and he was also waiting for the Auditor-General's report because decisions of this seriousness had to be made on the basis of facts.

"I have done nothing wrong and I have followed the rules."

It is understood Mr Anderton and the Prime Minister are prepared to move before the official findings if they judge Ms Bunkle has lost all credibility, particularly as those findings could be weeks away.

But sacking her now would raise questions about why Labour's Broadcasting Minister, Marian Hobbs, who also claimed an out-of Wellington allowance when enrolled in Wellington Central, should not get the same treatment.

Ms Bunkle reiterated yesterday that her Thorndon cottage has only one bedroom. "It has a second single bed on a mezzanine-level sunroom."

But, while the cottage was "perfectly adequate" for adults who were staying over or working, it was not suitable for her sick daughter.