First interesting bit from Stuff's crowdsourcing of Ministerial expenses: another case of lost luggage. In June last year, Anne Tolley [PDF; pg 10, 17-19] went on a long trip to attend an informal OECD Minister's Conference in Oslo, an export education fair in Bangkok, and the Commonwealth Education Ministers conference in Kuala Lumpur. While on this trip, both she and her accompanying staff member managed to lose their luggage, requiring $994 and $153 respectively to be spent on replacement clothing. If that sort of thing happens, its a legitimate expense - you can't have the Minister attending a conference in their travel clothes. OTOH, its amazing how often it seems to happen to Ministers. maybe the baggage handling staff have it in for them.
Also on that trip, Tolley was paying 21 bhat Ringgit (~$9.50) a copy to have the Dominion-Post airfreighted to her room every morning. naturally, her staff member needed their own copy as well. And this, from a government which is supposedly cracking down on "waste". can't they just use the internet like everybody else?
Correction: Corrected currency.
