Hon Jim Anderton

Member of Parliament for Wigram
Progressive Leader

28 October 2009 Media Statement

An ‘unfortunate’ arrangement

The Auditor General’s findings about Bill English’s accommodation arrangements go significantly further than findings that caused Marion Hobbs and Phillida Bunkle to stand down from ministerial office in 2001, Progressive MP Jim Anderton says.

“This makes Mr English’s position as finance minister very difficult,” Jim Anderton says.

“I have been in the same position as Mr Key is now in, in having to make a decision on the future of the Minister. A precedent for the right thing to do has been set.”

Jim Anderton wrote to the Auditor-General saying Mr English’ arrangements needed scrutiny. The report finds Mr English’s arrangements were not within the rules. The Auditor General’s report states:

The result was that the Crown was renting a property for Mr English from a trust in which he had an interest, and the arrangement was explicitly based on a view that he did not have an interest. Clearly, this was unfortunate.

“The report discloses Mr English went to some lengths to arrange his affairs around the accommodation allowance entitlement. That is not a good look for a Minister of Finance.

“The Auditor-General’s advice does not even mention other issues that the Prime Minister still needs to consider: that Mr English was giving his Wellington address as his home for the purpose of being a director of a company (incidentally, the company that owns his Dipton investment), but claiming to live in Dipton for the purpose of receiving an accommodation allowance.

“A prudent minister might have noticed the contradiction between those two claims.

“I have always welcomed the idea of Mr English having his family with him in Wellington. That is not the issue. The question is whether he was right to claim entitlements for doing so.

“It would not have been in any way objectionable if Mr English had lived in Wellington with his family and claimed an out of town allowance for his occasional trips to Dipton,”
Jim Anderton said.

ENDS

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