No Sympathy for MPs' "Taxing" Ballet Tour

13 APRIL 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the Speaker, the Rt Hon David Carter, to pull the curtain on the culture of junkets he and other MPs arrange annually. Reacting to the NZ Herald story where Mr Carter described the schedule of the taxpayer-funded tour of Latin America as “fairly taxing”, Jordan Williams, Executive Director of the Taxpayers’ Unionsays:

“These Speaker’s tours hark back to the day when diplomacy was deals done over a whiskey in smoke filled rooms. In 2016 they are redundant and offer taxpayers no value for money. No one still accepts that a schedule of lunches, dinners and taxpayer funded trips to the ballet are ’taxing’ or hard work.”

“Those who benefit from these junkets often claim that is it a chance for MPs and their staff to observe and learn from other democracies. If that was true, why aren’t the tours to comparable Westminster-based Parliaments with rule of law and democratic traditions? If Mr Carter is seriously saying that this money is worth it so MPs can learn from Mexico and Argentina, God help us.”

“It’s time for Mr Carter to face the fact that these trips are junkets. He knows, MPs know it, and taxpayers certainly know it.”

ENDS

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