MPs' gifts include plonk worth $500

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton was given two bottles of wine together worth more than $500 in the past year, the first register of pecuniary interests of members of Parliament published yesterday revealed.

One was a 1990 Petrus and the other a bottle of 1986 Chateau Margaux. The donor was the chief executive of Fisherman's Wharf, in Macau.

It was one of the more interesting declarations in the register which includes gifts, super schemes, property, loans and - the Pipi Foundation clause - organisations with which they are associated which seek Government funding.

Among the other gifts of more than $500 was an outing to a Kenyan game park for Speaker Margaret Wilson from the Kenyan Government.

And National leader Don Brash declared a chartered plane trip from Queenstown to the West Coast, put on by publisher Barry Colman so that Dr Brash could speak at the Kumara races after a race dedicated to Mr Colman's late wife, Cushla Martini.

One of the barest declarations is from Whanganui MP Chester Borrow, who simply owns a property in Egmont St, Hawera.

His fellow MP and former Wellington mayor Mark Blumsky has a holiday home in Marlborough, a holiday home in Ohakune, a time share in Turangi as well as a family home in Wellington.

Some MPs have declared Koru Club membership as gifts and some haven't, even though Parliamentary Service said yesterday it was a gift and not part of MPs' entitlements.

But it appears that some MPs have not declared it because they receive it as part of the "golden elite" package of entitlements the airline gives them for clocking up so many air miles.

Previously only ministers were required to declare assets and interests to avoid conflicts of interest in decision-making.

The late Green MP Rod Donald promoted the notion that all MPs be subject to the same declarations.

Labour originally promoted the concept in legislation, but that would have opened up the potential of unwanted scrutiny by the courts in the affairs of MPs over possible non-compliance.

The bill was therefore dropped in favour of the required declarations being put into Parliament's own self-governing rules. 

 
What they must declare

Directorships, shareholdings and other business interests, real estate, superannuation schemes, gifts and hospitality over $500, non-parliamentary travel and accommodation funded by private interests, sources of other employment and fees, trusts membership, membership of bodies seeking Government funding, debts of more than $500 paid by someone else for the member, creditors to whom the MP owes more than $50,000, complimentary membership of airport lounges, airline upgrades, and services provided at no charge.

Amounts and values are not required to be declared.