troughers

In the press release she signed with 27 other Auckland loons, Green MP and Waiheke Local Board member Denise Roche has thoughtfully reminded me that she has held the joint role of local board member and Member of Parliament since the November 27 election.

I wonder – is she keeping both salaries and perks though? Jami-lee Ross resigned the Monday after his win int eh by-election. Labour too made much of double-dippers in the past so why are they remaining silent on Denise Roche?

As a backbench List MP, Roche would be earning $135,000 pa, more or less, plus perks like free phones, travel etc.
As a local board member, Roche would be earning around $35,000 pa, more of less, plus perks like free cellphone, free laptop etc.

So, questions for the media to ask:

Given that Denise Roche has not resigned as a local board member since becoming a MP, is she drawing both incomes? Has she been keeping the extra money, or is she giving it away to a charity (like Sam Lotu-Iiga did)

Is she keeping 2 laptops, 2 phones etc? If she hasn’t returned both phones, how do we know she hasn’t given one to a relative or friend or political ally to use as a nice free phone or laptop that is cost-centred by the ratepayers of Auckland..

I think we should know.

Len Brown is not the only council parasite. Read this from the Taranaki Daily News:

Almost $1000 was spent by the New Plymouth District Council wining and dining a potential employee.

A member of the public found a payment notice for the June dinner at L’Escargot Restaurant, totalling $922.25 and charged to the NPDC, on the street and handed it to the Taranaki Daily News.

Inquiries by the newspaper revealed the dinner, for eight, was part of the recruitment process for a senior member of council staff.

“For a very small number of senior vacancies where the position involves important relationships with key partners and sponsors, we will sometimes arrange a dinner or other social occasion to observe the preferred candidate’s social skills,” council communications manager Nick Maybury said.

He said the occasions were useful to introduce the “preferred candidate” to others who were not on the selection panel but whose support for the final appointment was important.

Mr Maybury said he had attended the dinner but would not name others in the party for privacy reasons. “The type of people we would invite includes relevant general managers, elected representatives, external stakeholders and their partners.”

Unfortunately for Mr Maybury I have already proved that you can’t keep dinner guest secret, I forced Len Brown to name his dinner guests at Volare after 6 months and much complaining to the Ombudsmen. The good folk of New Plymouth should likewise chase this issue.

Being secretive and furtive like Len Brown is so un-becoming.

Bill English’s brother score a primo position uncontested.

Finance minister Bill English says the public service must “trim the fat” – but his brother has landed a lucrative contract at the Health Ministry.

Former Electricity Commission general manager Mervyn English is working on a new Health Sector Forum. Another consultant Paul McCormack, a former GP, has been employed to give specialist advice. Neither job was advertised.

The ministry would not say how much they were being paid.

My sources tell me that this guy is a veteran trougher and a tosser to boot. I am reliably informed that he will be getting in the order of $300k p.a. equivalent as a contracter. Not bad for an uncontested position.

There are two things that I think we should be doing to combat this sort of blatant cronyism/nepotism:

• In the public service anything over $50k should be contested; and
• When the guy’s brother is the minister of finance, especially this minister of finance wouldn’t you (the  Min of Health) exercise a little more prudence?.

A couple of bludging MPs are off to some talk fest.

Labour MPs Pete Hodgson and William Sio are off to Mexico and Panama.

Speaker Lockwood Smith said the pair would meet Mexican parliamentarians in Mexico City, before heading to 124th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Panama City, Panama.

In Mexico discussions would cover customs, business and both countries’ roles in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Since the early 1970s, Mexico has consistently been our key export market in Latin America while growing in significance as a destination for New Zealand investment,” Dr Smith said.

Over the past five years, New Zealand exports to Mexico have averaged around $444 million per year.

If Mexico is so important why are we sending two losers, one about to leave parliament and the other ranked 17 on Labour’s list.

Lookwood Smith would do us all a favour by making any travel by anyone outside of cabinet only half subsidised, so the MP had to pay the other half. That would make them stop and think about whether it was good value to go.

Pete Hodgson’s hit on Pansy Wong will have caused ructions, not just in National, but across all other parties as MPs rack their feeble minds about whether or not they conducted even 5 minutes of business while they availed themselves of taxpayer funded travel.

It isn’t then a surprise that many MPs are calling for the end of what could possibly be the end of them.

While Hodgson can claim the scalp he should really hand the kudos to an embittered investor intent on revenge for getting tucked in a business deal in China. He really should have read my post about understanding how business is conducted in China, in particular these translations;

Spirit of co-operation and partnership” — you do what we say.

“We are not in competition we are partners” — I’m going to bend you over and screw you from behind once we’ve stolen, or borrowed, or unpicked your IP and under-cutting you in a factory in Guangdong.

Meanwhile plenty of other MPs and ex-MPs will be quietly hoping that interested media and bloggers don’t start going over their ravel expenses and matching them to meetings or document signings or photos in social media.

It is beyond even the most partisan hack’s justification to suggest that MPs an their spouses/partners availing themselves of the travel perk never conducted even a minute of business while using the travel perk.

To suggest that is the case stretches the boundaries of truth just too far. Are they really saying that when Peter Davis travelled on his spouses perk that he never, not once, ever conducted any business or research or even held a 10 minute meeting in the Koru Club related to his line work?

Or any number of the MPs who hold directorships, trusteeships or interets outside of parliament never took a call on their phone that took 5 minutes while they were on holiday and discussed business or otherwise.

Pete Hodgson did us all a favour by attacking Pansy Wong, he ensured that every other MP in parliament is now looking over their shoulders, as well they should.

But watch as collectively they all do the wrong thing and squeal for compensation at the removal of the perk.

Penny Hulse and other troughers elected to the new council are whinging about their pay.

Greedy Little Piggy - Penny Hulse

Deputy mayor Penny Hulse said on the basis of workload and expectations, her 20 fellow ward councillors were underpaid.

“The pay scales treat us as though we are members of small boards. They do not recognise the jobs we have been given.”

“They have been set by people who don’t recognise the job we do, how much work or time is involved.”

She said she wasn’t sure what an appropriate salary was, and although they shouldn’t be the same as MPs, “our jobs are similar”.

She was willing to settle into the job, but wants salaries reviewed.

Her comments were supported by North Shore councillor George Wood, who said he was “surprised” by the remuneration levels.

“That it’s at the level it is has surprised me, given the work we are expected to do. But given we are the first cut, so to speak, we will just have to wear it,” he said.

“This is something the Remuneration Authority will have to look at.”

Waitemata and Gulf councillor Mike Lee said the salary was “not sufficient”.

“It’s meant to be a super city. The council is meant to undertake the responsibilities of what was a regional council and a city council, but that is not reflected.”

This is what happens when you elected old duffers and pinkos. They always want a bigger suck of the sav. Poor old George Wood looks confused, ho on earth can he express surprise at the remuneration levels? As for Mike Lee and Penny Hulse, well they are just pinko troughers looking for more public money to wallow in.

Local Government Minister Rodney Hide rubbished the request, saying that if councillors didn’t like the pay they shouldn’t have stood, since salaries were announced three months before the election.

In June the Remuneration Authority announced the new mayor would receive $240,000, and councillors an $80,000 base rate, with more allocated to committee chairs, though the exact amount is unclear.

So no surprises there then, except for poor old George.

Whau councillor Noelene Raffills also considered the salary low, but said she didn’t put herself forward for money.

But Howick councillor Jami-Lee Ross disagreed, warning his colleagues, some with business incomes, to resist being greedy. “We knew what the salaries would be before we put ourselves forward, so why would we now ask for more?”

Good to see some councillors can see the bleeding obvious. Haven’t seen a pinko councillor though with similar perspicacity.

No wonder Len Brown was under pressure from the pinko councillors to have 55 committees. All the more meetings to fill up the trough with ratepayer cash.

I think with a spendthrift Mayor and a whole bunch of pinkos on the council we should be vigilant on how they propose to spend our money. The warning signs are already there, that though there will be no credit cards, the Deputy Mayor looks to be establishing some nice expense accounts for the councillors.

Lockwood Smith has backed down after painting himself into a corner over transparency.

Speaker Lockwood Smith has caved in to pressure to release MPs’ spending on their travel perks after political parties rebelled against his initial stance by releasing their own expenses.

Today Dr Smith re-issued the last quarter’s expense disclosure with the cost of MPs’ travel perks included again.

He said he would continue to include the costs of that travel in the future.

In a statement he said he had released the full set of expenses because of confusion created by the decision of some parties to release their own expenses.

Good stuff. Now perhaps he might get back on track to being a great Speaker like we discussed the other week, by opening up all of Parliamentary Services spending to the OIA, especially the Leaders offices of all political parties. Let’s see how committed Labour and the Greens are to transparency now, not just on travel expenses but all spending inside parliamentary services. I suspect their commitment to transparency is decidedly hollow.

Now Lockwood is going to be list only, I am considering rejoining National so I can rank him last at regional list ranking next year.

His dumb approach to trying to put the genie back in the bottle on the travel perk has bought him the distain of the editorial pages.

The Press says:

All of what MPs receive is public money and as such should be subject to the greatest transparency possible. Instead of a murky mish-mash that may or may not be subject to misuse, it should be clear what MPs are being paid without resort to trade-offs or any other such potentially mystifying devices.

The Herald also kicks him square in the nuts

Parliament has done a disservice to itself and to the public interest with a decision to conceal the costs of each member’s subsidised holidays overseas. The new rules announced by the Speaker, Lockwood Smith, can only lessen Parliament’s standing in public estimation and feed the suspicions of those ever ready to believe the worst of politicians.

The Dominion points out the obvious to all those that don’t live in the parallel universe Lockwood lives in;

The ongoing furore over MPs’ travel expenses is the price MPs pay for refusing to surrender control of their pay and perks. It is a price successive Speakers have been happy to pay, but it is not one the public should tolerate.

MPs’ pay and perks should be set by an independent body that takes account of comparable pay rates here and overseas, the state of the economy and workloads.

Someone needs to take Lockwood out the back and hit him hard with a bit of four by two until he sees sense.

The Herald have tracked down the trougher who scammed an extra $9000 of travel that he wasn’t entitled to. It is Alec Neill.

Like all troughers he is squealing, like the greedy little piggy he is, over rule changes.

Mr Neill said Parliamentary Service decided in 2002 his two part-terms were the equivalent of a full term so he qualified for the 60 per cent rebate. But this May he was told there was a review of all travel concessions and he did not qualify.

“They’re now taking the high-handed approach that I wasn’t there for three full terms. From my point of view Parliamentary Service made a correct, commonsense decision and now some new broom has chosen to make his mark and change the rules.

“I’m somewhat frustrated by that but I can’t see what I can do about it.”

He said he rarely used the rebates, spending $9000 over eight years mainly on trips to Australia to see his grandchildren. He said Parliamentary Service had not asked for the money back and he did not believe it should.

“What piddles me off is you can’t just go and start a new career or international job because you’re next on the list. That happened to me twice. To find out eight years later that some smart alec has changed the rules and stopped my concessions is somewhat disappointing.”

Oh how pathetic. All woe is me and crying a river. The entitle-itis is quite advanced in this specimen. He should be paying it back, even though it was a mistake he had it in the first place.

Gee wouldn’t it be nice if every grandparent was subsidised to go see the grand-kids. What a fuckwit! He should have just STFU and paid it back and stayed on the down low.

I think he might find out that the “smart alec” he is so upset with is The Speaker.

Here is the list of possible suspects in the case of the rorting ex-MP. I think it is unlikely it is a one termer. Possibly a two termer but likely to be one, either with form, or a confusing set of services. Therefore I have eliminated the one termers (except those with form) from the list.

I encourage the innocent to use the tip line to eliminate themselves.

John Blincoe (Labour – two terms 1990-1996)

Bruce Cliffe (National/United Future two terms – 1990-1996)

Michael Laws (National/Winston First – two terms – 1990-1996)

John Robertson (National/United Future  - two terms -1990-1996)

Trevor Rogers (National/Independent - two terms – 1990-1996)

Arthur Anae (National – one and bit terms – 1996-1999, 2000-2002)

Tuariki John Delamare (Winston First – one term – 1996-1999)

Grant Gillon (Alliance – two terms – 1996-2002)

Frank Grover (Alliance/Christian Heritage – one term 1996-1999)

Joe Hawke (Labour – two terms – 1996-2002)

Gavan Herlihy (National – two terms -1996-2002)

Owen Jennings (Act – two terms – 1996-2002)

Neil Kirton (Winston First – one term – 1996-1999)

Murray McLean (National – one term – 1996-1999)

Tuku Morgan (Winston First/Mauri Pacific – one term – 1996-1999)

Bob Simcock (National – two terms – 1996-2002)

Rana Waitai (Winston First/Mauri Pacific – one term – 1996 -1999)

John Wright (Alliance – two terms – 1996-2002)

Tu Wyllie (Winston First – one term – 1996-1999)

John Armstrong (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Jeff Grant (National – two terms – 1987-1993)

Hamish Hancock (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Wayne Kimber (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Hamish McIntyre (National/Alliance – one term – 1990-1993)

Rob Munro (National – two terms 1987-1990)

Gilbert Myles (National/Winston First – one and a bit terms – 1990-1993, 1999)

Ian Peters (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Graeme Reeves (National – one term 1990-1993)

Grant Thomas (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Grahame Thorne (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Jeff Whitaker (National – one term – 1990-1993)

Bill Dillon (Labour – two terms – 1984-1990) UPDATED: Deceased, via comments, someone should update his Wikipedia page.

David Robinson (Labour – one term – 1987-1990)

Noel Scott (Labour – two terms – 1984-1990)

Peter Simpson (Labour – one term – 1987 -1990)

Bill Sutton (Labour – two terms – 1984-1990)

Allan Wallbank (Labour – two terms – 1984-1990)

Gary Knapp (Social Credit – two and bit terms – 1980-1987) UPDATED – Eliminated via tip line

Pat Hunt (National – two terms – 1978-1984)

Alec Neill (National – two full terms and two partial terms – 1990-1996, 1999, 2001-2002)