Finally, three days after Lockwood Smith slammed the door on Parliamentary transparency by covering up MP's use of their international travel perk, Phil Goff has joined other party leaders in condemning it:
The leaders of both major parties say they want their caucuses to release details of members' use of the MPs' international travel perk after the decision by Speaker Lockwood Smith to withhold the information.He's also joined the Greens in their call for a full and independent review of Parliamentary perks, and said that he does not believe the taxpayer should be paying for MPs' holidays. All of which is good. But wouldn't it have been better if he'd said it on Friday, rather than being late to the party?[...]
Mr Goff said he would talk to his caucus about releasing the details.
"My personal view is that there needs to be transparency around the use of the travel privileges or there is a risk they are abused."
This leaves the Maori Party as the only significant party not to condemn Lockwood's move - and Peter Dunne (who gets the 90% subsidy) as its only defender. I guess he - and Lockwood - must be planning some expensive foreign holidays on the taxpayer then.
