Focus switches to MPs' unpaid bills

National Party minister John Carter enjoyed an unusual and lavish dinner last year and put the $500 bill on his ministerial credit card. Photo / Supplied

As Labour leader Phil Goff moves to punish colleagues who misused their official credit cards when they were ministers, attention is now turning to bills that are still to be repaid.

Today Labour confirmed that former Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia had looked at a $373.50 bill he put on his ministerial credit card in 2007 for a meal for electorate staff - and would pay back that amount.

The description for the restaurant meal says it was an "electorate staff dinner".

A spokeswoman for Labour earlier said it was possible that ministerial staff attended the meal.

"If it was only electorate staff, he will have to pay that back," she said.

Senior Cabinet minister Gerry Brownlee this year repaid $152.90 spent on a lunch with his electorate staff.

Mr Goff is today expected to demote Shane Jones and Chris Carter from Labour's front bench.

Mr Jones billed more than $6000 of personal spending to his ministerial card, including the cost of watching up to 50 pornographic movies while staying at hotels.

Mr Carter put flowers and massages on his card, and last week repaid $251.16.

Yesterday, Mr Goff said the issue was not the movies. "What people do in the privacy of their own room is up to them. I'm not about to judge people's behaviour. The issue is the expenditure of Government money."

Further spending details are continuing to emerge.

Former Trade Minister Jim Sutton's office was charged for a $131 massage in 2005 in China, and another massage, in Thailand, appears to have been paid for with $140 of personal cash.

Mr Sutton, who is now chairman of Landcorp, said yesterday that he did not know anything about the massages.

"I've never had a massage in my life."

In 2007, Nanaia Mahuta, a Cabinet minister at the time, put $458.20 worth of charges at Wellington's James Cook Hotel on her ministerial credit card. She later repaid the money.

The taxpayer also paid $273 to retrieve her self-drive ministerial car from a Wellington parking lot in 2008.

Also that year, Ministerial Services sent a letter to Steve Chadwick, a minister at the time, telling her she had to give better explanations for her meal charges than "guest meal with me" or "meeting".

She subsequently paid for four out of five meals she had claimed.

In 2003, the then Corrections Minister, Damien O'Connor, watched two in-house movies on the taxpayer in Sacramento and Sydney, but he said they were not pornographic films.

He made repayments in 2006 for a $61 gift from The Body Shop, and in 2007 for $667.10 for personal items in Singapore and Paris.

A morning at a ten-pin bowling alley was put on former Labour MP Judith Tizard's office plastic.

The $210 bill was justified as an "SPS [senior private secretary] away day activity (training and development)" for 21 people at $10 a game.

In 2007, a staff member in Dover Samuels' ministerial office charged $25 - later repaid - to go up the Auckland Sky Tower.

This prompted a letter from Ministerial Services saying that accidental or not, "personal expenditure on Ministerial Services credit cards is NOT acceptable and MUST NOT occur".

Last year, fraud occurred in the offices of Prime Minister John Key and Women's Affairs Minister Pansy Wong.

Charges worth $850.15 were run up on the card from Mr Key's office. They included $390 at a Wellington party pill shop, nearly $400 at a tobacco shop, and a Burger King meal.

Someone put $208.64 on a Paypal account using a card from Ms Wong's office. The person whose name was on the card said they had not used it.

The banks reimbursed the money.

Living (and eating) high on the hog

Pigs' heads, smoked eel and pinot gris - National Party minister John Carter enjoyed an unusual and lavish dinner last year and put the $500 bill on his ministerial credit card.

Details of the dinner for Mr Carter - who repaid the bill within weeks - are revealed among 7000 documents of credit card expenses going back to 2003, made public last week.

The documents have shed light not only on inappropriate spending, but also on the eating habits of current and former ministers.

Mr Carter, who is Minister of Civil Defence, Senior Citizens and Racing, had the pig-head meal at the luxury Carrington Resort on the Karikari Peninsula in Northland.

On the menu were two pigs' heads, carpaccio beef, smoked eel, fish, lamb, two apricot tarts, creme brulee, a cheese board, two bottles of Gibbston Valley pinot gris, a glass of Glenfiddich whisky and coffee.

But Mr Carter's records show he also eats at the other end of the spectrum.

In October, he spent $20 at McDonald's in Manukau on a medium Coke, a medium strawberry milkshake and two Grand Angus beef burgers.

This was considered a part of ministerial business and was recorded as a Civil Defence dinner.

Mr Carter is not the only one who has put fast food on the taxpayer-funded plastic.

Act deputy leader Heather Roy bought a KFC fried chicken dinner for two in Gore on July 20 last year.

Former Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia enjoyed Chinese, Thai and Japanese food, but also had a soft spot for steak, eggs and chips.

Darren Hughes' office when he was Statistics Minister was often fuelled by tea and juice, ginger kisses, mini mudcakes, afghans and strawberries.

In 2006, the office bought a 60cm Christmas tree and decorations for $84.88 from Farmers.

More from ministers' credit card file:

LABOUR

* Judith Tizard: $210 on ten-pin bowling for office staff.

* Parekura Horomia: $370.50 restaurant meal for electorate staff.

* Jim Sutton: $131 for massage in China.

* Nanaia Mahuta: $273 to get car out of parking lot.

* Dover Samuels: $25 spent by staffer to go up Sky Tower.

* Margaret Wilson: $599 for two suitcases.

NATIONAL

* Pansy Wong: $208.64 on Paypal account (card allegedly stolen).

* PM John Key's office: $390 at party pill shop and $400 at tobacco shop (card allegedly stolen).