KEY POINTS:
National and Labour leaders are defending their decisions to send MPs due to retire from Parliament on a two-week trip around Europe which is widely regarded as a junket.
Four of the five MPs on the Speakers' Tour to Eastern Europe will leave politics at the election.
The only MP on the trip who has not said they will leave is NZ First's Peter Brown.
Parties decide which MPs go on the trip and yesterday both National leader John Key and Prime Minister Helen Clark defended their choices, saying it was important for returning MPs to concentrate on the campaign at home.
The trip includes time in Milan, Poland cities of Warsaw and Krakow, Prague in the Czech Republic, and Budapest in Hungary.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said it was a "diplomatic outreach" for New Zealand to build and maintain relations with countries to which senior Government representatives did not often travel.
"It is not about the benefit for MPs, it's about the benefit for New Zealand."
Of those on the trip, National's Katherine Rich will leave to concentrate on her family, and National's suspended MP Brian Connell is not contesting his Rakaia electorate. Labour's Marian Hobbs has also decided to resign and Speaker Margaret Wilson - who hosts the trip - is leaving to return to academia.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the trip represented New Zealand's Parliament overseas.
"Obviously in election year a lot of people have other things on their mind, like running for Parliament again but the key thing is that this is representation of New Zealand. In that sense it doesn't really matter who is doing it, as long as they're members of Parliament."
Mr Key said Ms Rich and Mr Connell were the only two of National's 48 MPs "prepared and able" to go on the trip.
"I want my MPs who are seeking re-relection to be out there working hard on the campaign trail."
Mr Key also refused to debate the merit of the trip, saying it was for the Speaker to decide if it was good value for the taxpayer.
He said it was a long-standing tradition which had happened for the past 20 years and was led by the Speaker, a senior parliamentarian.
"So we think it would be wrong for the Opposition to have boycotted that trip, because they are representing New Zealand."
He said it was irrelevant that National chose Mr Connell to go on the trip, despite his suspension from National's caucus.
"He is a member of Parliament and he participates in all of the other parliamentary activities including Question Time and select committee."
The annual trip has previously been described as a "junket" but is described by the Speakers' office as a chance to establish reciprocal relations with countries in wider Europe. It would support trade relationships, and MPS would also look at constitutional arrangements and parliamentary systems of other countries.
A spokeswoman said Ms Wilson was unlikely to comment on the make-up of the group and the itinerary had not been finalised.
Ms Hobbs told the Press it could be seen as a "last hurrah" for the retiring MPs.
"I don't know too much about the purpose. I think it's about MMP. I'm not sure," she told the Press.
Act leader Rodney Hide, who has been on a previous Speaker's tour to Latin America, told NZPA he felt the trips were worthwhile and that the MPs on it would make a contribution.
He believed the political parties had decided to send MPs who were retiring at the election because it was a busy election year.
"So, you can understand the logic of their thinking," he said.
"It is a bad look but at the end of the day, do you want a parliament that interacts with other parliaments? And if the answer is yes, then you're going to have trips like this.
The MPs and two staff will leave on April 18 and travel business class to Milan, via Singapore. They then head to Eastern Europe for a fortnight, including time in Warsaw and Krakow in Poland, where they visit the former concentration camp Auschwitz. They will spend three days in Prague, in the Czech Republic, and then the Hungarian capital of Budapest, before travelling home via Frankfurt. They return on May 2.
