Six years ago, the Prime Minister acknowledged taxpayer outrage over globetrotting parliamentarians by saying he did not want his ministers "travelling around the world for no particular reason". In that context, it is more than reasonable to ask how the Speaker's Easter tour, widely reckoned to be the junket of the year, survives. Yet survive it does, and this week five MPs and their partners jetted off on a 14-day tour of Europe led by Parliament's Speaker, David Carter. The cost of this most abject of anachronisms is $138,000.
For years, all sorts of tiresome explanations have been trotted out in an attempt to placate the public. Helen Clark liked to talk of "diplomatic outreach". Valuable insights were said to be gained into how other countries handled problems shared by New Zealand. This year's delegation would, said Mr Carter, "exchange views on the significant economic, political and security challenges in the European Union and its near neighbourhood, as well as those affecting the Pacific". He has argued that his presence is a major plus because Speakers can open doors otherwise closed.
It is all nonsense, of course. The role of Speaker may resonate with other Speakers, but it has never enjoyed any particular cachet in matters of diplomacy or trade. It simply does not exist for that. A glance at the itinerary for this year's junket confirms as much, as well as the worthlessness of the exercise. What possible value can be derived from attendance at the 98th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Arras? Or the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp? Or the array of low-level meetings?
What, also, is the point of taking partners? But at least their presence does point to the true nature of the jaunt. This is an old-school tradition that parliamentarians of almost every ilk will cling to as long as they think they can get away with it. As much has been highlighted by Act leader David Seymour, who noted the reaction when he raised the issue of such travel soon after entering Parliament. "I've never seen politicians who are normally so opposed to each other close ranks so rapidly," he said.
The Speaker's junket should have been consigned to history many years ago, and most certainly after 2008. In that year, four of the five MPs touring eastern Europe with Speaker Margaret Wilson had already announced their retirement at the coming general election. For them, this was nothing more than a golden handshake, in some cases for going quietly. Their spot of OE was certainly never going to deliver any value to the taxpayer. Neither, of course, will the present junket. It serves no purpose for Mr Carter to waste more time and effort on a report at the end of it.
