KEY POINTS:
A confidential review wants Parliament to be run more like a business with an independent board of advisers.
The review says the "Parliamentary Corporation" should be given $2 million more a year than the present Parliamentary Service gets to spend.
It wants to reduce the travel perks of
former MPs and their partners but increase the amount of international travel made by members of select committees.
It says the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet should establish a plan for keeping Parliament and the Government operating if there are "major incidents" at Parliament - implying that such a plan does not now exist.
And it suggests that Parliament's image be spruced up, calling for "a decision to be taken to confirm an image standard that reflects pride in our system of democracy and the institution of Parliament".
The review was done by John Goulter, former managing director of Auckland International Airport, and business and policy consultant Adrienne Von Tunzlemann.
Because Parliament is accountable to no one, a review of its spending and services by an independent person is required by law every three years.
The Parliamentary Service is the bureaucracy that administers Parliament. It is answerable to Speaker Margaret Wilson.
Many MPs believe the power of the bureaucracy has got out of control.
The review's report proposes "a new market-led customer approach that would involve reconfirming Parliamentary Service's customer base".
It lists others who might be "customers", such as the Speaker and parliamentary agencies such as the Office of the Clerk.
"The main point, however, is to accept that there are indeed customers to serve."
The report hints of serious difficulties between the Parliamentary Service and the Speaker.
It says the relationship between the Speaker and the Parliamentary Service general manager is a critical one "and one that must be maintained at a very high level of efficiency, effectiveness and decorum".
The Parliamentary Corporation already exists, as a holding company for the Parliamentary Service's commercial transactions.
But Mr Goulter and Ms Von Tunzlemann want it restructured into a new body with a chief executive instead of a general manager, to take over the work of the Parliamentary Service.
Their review is separate from others being done after the Auditor-General found political parties had unlawfully spent $1.2 million of parliamentary money in the 2005 election campaign.
Deloittes has a contract to review the administrative procedures of the Parliamentary Service, which paid the invoices for the unlawful expenditure, and the Justice Department is reviewing the Electoral Act.