Air New Zealand Koru Club membership - the gift every MP gets, but none declares

If the words of the recently unseated MP Dan Rosewarne are anything to go by, parliamentarians are deeply attached to the Koru Club membership that comes as a perk of the job - or so they think.

Rosewarne gave an elegy for his membership when doorstopped by media, saying post-parliamentary life was made real when he saw the “red lights of doom” upon trying to swipe himself into the Koru Club (technically called an Air New Zealand lounge after the airline dropped the Koru Club name).

Unlike most MPs’ perks, like flights and taxis, MPs’ lounge access isn’t actually paid for by the taxpayer. Instead, a kind of access is gifted by the airline itself - a fact confirmed to the Herald by Parliament.

The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, said membership was “not funded by the Parliamentary Service”.

“There is an agreement in place with the airline regarding the upgrading of existing memberships and lounge access,” he said.

MPs are not automatically granted membership to what is officially called the “Koru Programme” (the Koru Club), which would ordinarily cost each MP a $155 joining fee and a $635 annual fee after that.

Instead, Air New Zealand gives a time-limited upgrade of new MPs’ Airpoints status to a level that gives them lounge access.

At present, people with a Gold airpoints status get free lounge access - a Koru membership in all but name. Ministers’ offices also get a lounge membership, which can be handy for when ministers travel with staff.

For most people, that upgraded airpoints status would typically revert to a lower status during the course of the parliamentary term, unless that person does enough travel to earn points to keep it.

MPs, especially those who don’t live in Wellington, tend to travel regularly and often book fairly expensive last-minute travel. This means most MPs’ parliamentary travel would allow them to easily maintain Gold or Gold Elite status and keep their coveted lounge access.

Lounge access has become big news over the ditch, where MPs and judges are facing awkward questions over whether their complimentary membership of Qantas’ Koru club equivalent compromises their ability to act impartially as the airline comes under increased scrutiny over falling standards and alleged anti-competitive practices.

Some MPs, including Australian Green MP Max Chandler-Mather, have even refused the airline’s invitation to join the elite Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.

The situation is quite different in New Zealand when it comes to the judiciary. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson confirmed to the Herald that it pays for judges’ Koru memberships.

Victoria University of Wellington School of Government senior research fellow Max Rashbrooke told the Herald that while it was unlikely free lounge access was going to influence votes, the upgrade should nevertheless be declared along with the other gifts MPs receive in the annual register of MPs’ interests.

“They’re all part of building up warm and cosy relationships. We know this is how influence works. While this on its own may seem pretty small, it’s the sort of thing you should keep track of,” he said.

MPs declare most gifts they receive in the register of pecuniary interests. There you can find gifts including air travel and free sports tickets, but the airpoints upgrades received by MPs are not included in the register.

Some good news for Dan Rosewarne and all MPs who lost their seats at the election: Air New Zealand does not immediately strip ex-MPs of lounge access, because they never had it to begin with.

Because lounge access is tied to airpoints status, all MPs need to do to hold on to it is to keep flying like high rollers.

Experts put Rosewarne’s “red lights of doom” down to a mistake made when entering his airpoints ID.

Thomas Coughlan is deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.