English fails to shake off Opposition's attack dogs

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bill English. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

Finance Minister Bill English yesterday said he was paid no more in accommodation allowance than about 100 other MPs and "I think that is fair".

He said he had acknowledged there had been a "perception problem" around his previous ministerial housing arrangements and had paid money back - the increase between what ordinary out-of-town MPs get and ministers get.

An increasingly frustrated Mr English is facing a renewed campaign by Labour and Progressive leader Jim Anderton over his former ministerial accommodation arrangements, on the back of Official Information Act details that were released last week.

Mr English's family home is owned by the Endeavour Trust and because he has no pecuniary interest in the trust, when he became a minister he was able to rent the house to Ministerial Services for $700 a week.

That is more than the $460 he was claiming as a backbench MP but when that came to light in August, Mr English paid back $11,000 and reverted to the lesser amount.

Labour MP Pete Hodgson has been calling on Mr English to produce the confidential details of the trust and to show Mr English did not change the trust arrangements to qualify for the increase - something Mr English has denied.

Mr Hodgson yesterday pointed to the rules of ministerial entitlements which state "members of the executive must be open in the use of public resources and disclose any conflict of interest in utilising entitlements, whether that conflict is pecuniary, personal, familial, or as a result of any association".

Mr English is MP for Clutha Southland and while his wife is a GP in Wellington and his children go to school there, it is officially his secondary residence and he is able to claim accommodation costs as an out-of-town MP.

Mr Anderton has asked the Auditor-General for an investigation into whether Wellington is Mr English's primary residence.