Rodney Hide says people appreciate getting a card from their MP.
Rodney Hide says people appreciate getting a card from their MP.
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Rodney Hide has spent $1500 of taxpayers' money sending Act-branded Christmas cards to every house in his Epsom electorate saying how honoured he is to be their MP.
The pamphlet-style card has a photo of a smiling Mr Hide surrounded by Christmas livery and the rather unoriginal yeteffective "Seasons Greetings" message.
On the back, Mr Hide tells the people of Epsom he is honoured to represent them and gives his best wishes for the holiday season, leaving his office street address and email but no phone number.
The Act logo is there - as is the House of Representatives logo, required because it is the taxpayer who picked up the bill.
On Tuesday, Mr Hide spoke out for the rights of people to spend their "own money" on pamphlets during debate about the Electoral Finance Bill.
But yesterday Mr Hide - once a self-styled "perk-buster" - made no apologies for funding the cards out of taxpayers' money through the budget every electorate MP gets from the Parliamentary Service to run their office.
"To be honest, people do appreciate getting a card from their MP," Mr Hide said.
The politician said he had helped volunteers to hand-deliver the cards to 23,000 homes, which saved money on postage.
He preferred "direct communication" over newspaper adverts, and said the contact details on the card usually resulted in constituents getting in touch.
Defence Minister Phil Goff is spending $1700 sending Christmas cards to the people of his Mt Roskill electorate with a message saying he hopes they get to spend time with their families over the break.
Mr Goff's card goes a step further than Mr Hide's, telling his constituents of office hours, giving them an office phone number and saying he will make street stops in the New Year.
Mr Goff said he had sent the cards out for 20 years and also put one out for the Indian festive holiday Diwali and had previously put one out for Chinese New Year.
"Nothing unusual, nothing out of order, nothing out of character and nothing to apologise for," he said.
"If the Herald would do it for free for me, I would be happy to save the taxpayer money and do it on your pages."
Parliamentary Service chief finance officer Simon Wall said Christmas cards could come out of the members' support budget of $64,260 for electorate MPs and $40,932 for list MPs.
