KEY POINTS:
MPs who used taxpayer-funded taxi chits to escape from Ohakea after being stranded there by a defective aircraft were, well, doing what MPs do, says Prime Minister Helen Clark.
"They clearly had a book of taxi chits and used it," she said yesterday.
"I don't really want to enter into a debate about who did the right thing."
About 15 MPs were among 122 passengers on board the Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to Auckland that made an emergency landing last Thursday night at the Air Force base near Feilding.
National MP Judith Collins confirmed she and three of her caucus colleagues took a $360 taxi ride back to Wellington, the Dominion Post reported.
"It's a very hard decision to make when a plane breaks down, you're dumped somewhere you didn't expect to be and you're trying to work out how you will get to where you need to be for engagements next day," Helen Clark said when asked at her post-cabinet press conference about the incident.
While the National MPs took the taxi, Labour MPs called Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven asking him to arrange permission for a replacement aircraft to land at Ohakea. And it worked.
Helen Clark said it was "absolutely" okay for the MPs to call the minister. "Any member of the public could have rung ... and said, 'Can't something be done here within normal safety rules?' "
- NZPA
