Auckland businesses plead for greater police presence, more Kiwis rescued from New Caledonia and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calls a general election.
Judith Collins is the Government’s biggest spending minister on overseas travel, spending almost $150,000 in the first quarter.
It comes amid the publication of MPs’ and ministers’ travel and accommodation expenses as well as the release of ministerial offices’ credit card statements for the first three months of the year.
Of the Government ministers, Collins spent more than the rest on international travel - $144,019 from January to March.
She narrowly beat Foreign Minister Winston Peters, who naturally has a busy travel schedule and spent $138,428. Trade Minister and Associate Foreign Minister Todd McClay was the next highest with $53,869.
Collins, who holds eight ministerial portfolios, including defence, space and science, innovation and technology, had five trips in the first quarter where she visited Australia, the United States, France, Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Judith Collins, Minister for Space, in the United States' Space Symposium. Photo / Space Foundation
Among them was a meeting with the Australian Defence and Foreign Ministers, appearing at the United States’ Space Symposium and attending commemorations of the Battles of Cassino in Italy.
“We have regular virtual meetings but we also need to be present in person. These meetings reinforce that New Zealand is internationally engaged, connected and aligned with its defence friends and partners,” Collins said.
“I want New Zealand, and indeed the world, to be secure and for New Zealanders to be in a better economic position, so I make no excuses for getting out and doing my bit to make these things happen.”
Across all MPs, the disclosure of travel and accommodation costs showed National Ōtaki MP Tim Costley had spent the most with $32,954. About half of that had been spent on Wellington accommodation but the document clarified some of this included costs from Q4 of last year.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and Waiariki MP Rawiri Waititi had the highest expenses solely from Q1 at $31,653. About half of that had been spent on air travel.
A party spokesman explained Waititi lived in a rural area of his electorate which was almost 250 kilometres from the closest airport in Rotorua.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi lives in a rural area. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He cited calculations that showed a trip to Wellington and back could cost Waititi almost $1300. The party leader had also travelled to Waitangi, Hamilton, Palmerston North during the first three months of the year.
Labour’s Manurewa MP Arena Williams was the next highest having spent $29,467.
A Labour spokeswoman explained Williams paid for her two young children to fly down to Wellington with her twice a month. She also paid for her husband once a month.
Third-highest was Green Party list MP Darleen Tana, who had been suspended in mid-March amid investigations into her involvement in her husband’s E-bike business which had faced accusations of migrant exploitation.
She’d spent $28,570. A Green Party spokesman said Tana was an active MP for almost all of Q1 and her expenses also included accommodation costs from Q4 last year.
Tana also lived on Waiheke Island which increased her travel costs.
Darleen Tana has been suspended from her duties as an MP since mid-March. Photo / Supplied
New Zealand First’s Jamie Arbuckle had spent the most on “surface travel”, even though he wasn’t an electorate MP who often travel more than list MPs. No NZ First MPs won an electorate in the 2023 campaign.
A party spokesman said its MPs were expected to cover more than their own areas.
“Jamie has a lot of ground to as he regularly drives across the South Island.”
Also released today were the credit card statements of ministers’ offices.
There were several noteworthy expenses revealed including McClay gifting a $129 Blunt umbrella to Amitabh Kant, India’s G20 Sherpa who moderated a panel discussion while McClay was in India last year.
McClay also spent almost $200 on a gift of Manuka honey for Kant and India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal. For a trip to the United Arab Emirates earlier this year, McClay bought a glass koru paperweight for $259 and a blue bowl for $114.90 - both were gifts.
On two occasions, he spent $70 collectively on Whittaker’s chocolate for New Zealand Embassy staff in India and Geneva.
Whittaker’s chocolate also featured in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ expenses. She bought six bars as well as two NZ Breakers basketball jerseys as gifts for the Australian Treasurer’s children.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
