Act spurns invitation to cross-party Europe trip

Speaker Trevor Mallard and National MP Judith Collins are leading a delegation of MPs to Europe in an effort to help smooth the path for New Zealand’s EU trade deal.

MPs will leave the country shortly after the Budget. The trip will take in sites where New Zealanders fought in the two world wars and MPs will receive briefings on the Ukraine crisis. The trip takes in Crete, Athens, Rome, Warsaw, Brussels and Dublin.

Parliamentary trips, where nonexecutive MPs representing Parliament and not the Government, have been frowned upon in the past for the perception they are perks for already well-remunerated MPs. In that spirit, the Act Party has boycotted the trip.

Act whip Brooke van Velden said the party was “offered two places on the upcoming tours but we have declined the invitation”.

“These tours are expensive and it’s taxpayers who pick up the bill. No clear purpose that serves the public interest has been presented. It would be especially inappropriate to go on a taxpayer-funded junket without a clear policy purpose when debt and inflation are at record highs and Kiwis are feeling the pinch,” she said.

But Mallard said the trip was worthwhile.

He said that once the European Union Free Trade Agreement was settled, it would need to be ratified by local parliaments, so it was important for New Zealand’s parliamentarians to have good relationships with their European counterparts.

He said the MPs would be “doing some work” to position New Zealand for the deal.

Mallard said there would be “meetings with people involved in primary production”, and that he had asked for the trip to include members with farming experience.

Alongside Collins, National’s Agriculture spokeswoman Barbara Kuriger will travel on the trip.

Labour will be represented by Duncan Webb and Helen White.

“It is the first delegation since 2019, and there was a lot of discussion about Europe being the priority because of the FTA,” Mallard said.

“It is in the interest of every New Zealander that we have a successful free trade agreement,” Mallard said.

The delegations will meet parliamentarians on each stop, and members of the European Parliament.