Parliament's Speaker, Lockwood Smith, is moving relatively quickly to cancel the generous private international travel perks for former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field because of his conviction for bribery and corruption - but whether Field's wife will keep her perks is not certain.

Maxine Field is entitled to the same rebate as her husband - 90 per cent off any international up to about $10,000 a year, as well as 12 domestic return flights.

A spokesman for the Speaker said no decision had been made on Mrs Field's entitlement and it would be looked at separately because she had not committed a criminal offence.

Labour senior whip Darren Hughes opposes Mrs Field keeping it.

He said that he did not want to attack Mrs Field in any way, but her travel privilege had been based on her husband's service.

"That has now been tainted by this court verdict so the whole thing should be cancelled."

All Dr Smith has to do is issue a determination which authorises a new rule barring entitlements to MPs convicted of corruption, or to former MPs convicted of criminal offences with a term of imprisonment, for example two years.

He is seeking legal advice and expects the rule to be in place in about two weeks.

There was wide cross-party support yesterday to cancel Field's perks, but there was reluctance to contemplate a review of the same perks for other ex-MPs or current MPs.

Besides unlimited domestic travel, current MPs get unlimited rebates of between 25 and 90 per cent for private international travel, though the cost to the taxpayer remains a secret.

Former MPs elected before 1999 also get the perks depending on service but these are capped at about $10,000 a year.

Asked if it was time for a wider review of the holiday perk, Mr Hughes said : "No, right now we are just talking about Phillip Field."

He said the rules had been in place for "quite some time" and the justification for them is that "the longer a person has been in Parliament, the longer they have served in Parliament, the higher level of support they get for their international travel".

He said it was one way of recognising members who had served longer than others, when they all had the same entry rate of pay.

Deputy National leader Bill English said any review would have to be sorted out between the Speaker and the Parliamentary Service Commission.

Asked why former MPs should get the perk, Mr English said: "It is part of their traditional terms of employment.

"There are a number of aspects of the allowances in this place that don't always make sense."

Meanwhile, Mr English insisted yesterday that Dipton was still his primary place of residence, despite Labour saying it is Wellington, in a bid to suggest he should not receive any allowance as an out-of-town MP.

He said his electorate was about 1000km away and he got back there as often as he could.

He said he would return to Dipton after politics: "It's my home."