Luxon’s 41-minute U-turn on accommodation cash
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon professes his love for a “turnaround job”. His U-turn on receiving a $52,000-a-year accommodation entitlement might be his quickest turnaround yet.
To be exact, this turnaround took Luxon 41 minutes. Records obtained by The Post give a glimpse of how it was that Luxon got himself out of what has broadly been described as a politically problematic situation of his own making.
On Friday, March 1, Luxon confirmed that he was claiming a $52,000 accommodation allowance for living in Wellington as prime minister.
But the problem that quickly emerged for the prime minister was one of public perception. He had decided to claim the allowance instead of living at the prime minister’s Thorndon residence, Premier House, due to its need of renovations. Instead, he was taking the money to live in his own mortgage-free apartment.
“I’m well within the rules ... I’m just entitled to the entitlements that everyone else has,” he told reporters at a fraught press conference that Friday afternoon.
But within hours – and after Labour leader Chris Hipkins accused him of “treating taxpayers like an ATM” – Luxon had promised he would no longer claim the allowance and would pay back $13,000 already received.
It had become a “distraction”, Luxon said. But this prompted other questions from the press pack: How did you not realise it would be a distraction? Did you receive bad advice? Did Sir John Key talk you around?
A response from Luxon’s office to an Official Information Act request suggests the prime minister changed his mind some time between two phone calls with his chief of staff, Cameron Burrows, that occurred within an hour of him stepping away from the brief press conference.
Before stepping in front of the cameras in Queenstown, at 1.51pm, Luxon spoke by phone with his press team, chief press secretary Hamish Rutherford, deputy chief press secretary Jasmine Higginson, and another press secretary.
They discussed the questions about taking the accommodation allowance that were likely to come.
The press conference – at which Luxon repeatedly described the allowance as an “entitlement” – wrapped up roughly at 3.15pm. By 3.27pm, Burrows was on the phone for “a brief download” following the stand-up.
Then, 41 minutes later at 4.08pm, Luxon called Burrows back and, according to his office, “indicated that he had decided not to take the accommodation allowance and would repay any allowance already taken”.
An hour later, Luxon was live on radio, and his office issued a message to journalists: the allowance would be paid back.
The three phone calls were the only record of discussion between Luxon, his staff and anyone else about the issue, according to the prime minister’s office.