Ministers spent $1.49m on travel
The list of ministerial expenses for the last quarter has finally been released after weeks of delay, showing ministers spent $1.49 million on travel and accommodation in the last quarter.
The previous Government’s executive spent $2.02m over the same period in 2017, but a large chunk of this came from overseas travel missed out of an earlier quarter.
This release follows the leaking of Opposition leader Simon Bridges’ expense bill last month, and the subsequent release of all non-ministerial MP expenses.
It covers the same April to June three-month period but looks at the spending of Government ministers, who generally have far busier schedules than regular MPS.
Usually, ministerial expenses are released alongside the MP expenses but an accounting error meant the ministerial expenses have come out several weeks late.
Officials had admitted missing the entire month of June in their calculations, which had to be redone.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was on maternity leave for the last week of the period, spent $27,489 on travel and accommodation within New Zealand and $56,552 on overseas travel.
In the same period last year, then-prime minister Bill English spent $76,967 on internal travel and accommodation and $59,000 on overseas travel.
Labour ministers spent a total of $947,996 on travel and accommodation, while NZ First ministers spent $401,222, and Green ministers a total of $141,550.
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters spent the most with $153,421 – mostly on overseas travel – followed by Trade Minister David Parker and Foreign Affairs undersecretary Fletcher Tabuteau. Kelvin Davis spent the most on domestic travel – $46,737.
It’s understood there is a ‘‘rule of thumb’’ within the Government to use vans, instead of Crown cars, whenever more than one minister is travelling. A van service has also been set up to take MPS from Parliament to Wellington Airport on Thursday nights.
The Government’s $1.49m spend compares to $2.02m spent in the same period of 2017, $2.25m spent in the same quarter in 2016, and $2.33m in the 2015 period.
In the first quarter of this year, Government ministers spent $1.27m.